Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: FC Meerhof Willebroek (±1977-2000) / KVC Willebroek-Meerhof (B) (2000-2011) / Willebroekse SV matr. 9574 (2011-)

Sunday 14 August 2022

BELGIUM: FC Meerhof Willebroek (±1977-2000) / KVC Willebroek-Meerhof (B) (2000-2011) / Willebroekse SV matr. 9574 (2011-)

Breendonkstraat, Willebroek = Willebroeck (Willebroekse SV, formerly FC Meerhof Willebroek / youth academy of KVC Willebroek-Meerhof)

Belgium, province: Antwerp

14 VIII 2022 / Willebroekse SV - K Kalmthout SK 1-3 / Antwerp, Provincial Cup - group stage, group 1

Timeline

1960 / Foundation of FC Meerhof - Meerhof being the name of a neighbourhood on the southern outskirts of Willebroek. The club joins Arbeidersvoetbal, a recreational football league.
1965 / FC Meerhof joins Belgium's Football Association under matricule 7587.
1971 / FC Meerhof changes its name to become FC Meerhof Willebroek.
±1977 / The exact year cannot be ascertained (yet), but FC Meerhof Willebroek changed grounds in approximately 1977-78, moving from their original pitch at Ringlaan to a new sports park just across the road, at Breendonkstraat.
1978 / For the first time in the club's history, FC Meerhof Willebroek manages to win promotion to Antwerp's Provincial League 2. Between 1978 and 1997, the club plays a total of 16 seasons at this level - without ever managing to climb further up the league ladder.
2000 / FC Meerhof Willebroek concludes a merger with their more successful town rivals K Willebroekse SV, forming KVC Willebroek-Meerhof under Willebroekse's matricule 85. Henceforth, first team football is played at Stadion De Schalk, K Willebroekse SV's venue since 1984, while the premises at Breendonkstraat remain in use for the new club's youth academy.
2011 / After two successive relegations (in 2010 and 2011), throwing the club back from National Division 3 to Provincial League 1, KVC Willebroek-Meerhof, in grave financial difficulties, folds, ceasing all activities.
2011 / A successor club is founded, bearing the name of the bigger of the original two merger partners, Willebroekse SV, but under a new matricule (9574). While Stadion De Schalk is abandoned - and later demolished -, all activities of the new club have since taken place at Breendonkstraat.
2022 / Willebroekse SV accedes to Provincial League 2 for the first time in the young club's history.
2023 / Finishing 14th in P2A, Willebroekse SV has to play a relegation play-off against the club which finished third-last in P2B, K Wuustwezel FC, in order to save its skin - which it manages to do in a single match, played in Wuustwezel (1-1 and a penalty shoot-out).