Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: R Entente Marche FC (1992-2012) / Olympic Marche FC (2012-2015)

Centre Sportif Local de la Ville de Marche - terrain 1, Marche-en-Famenne (formerly R Entente Marche FC & Olympic Marche FC)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg

May 2011 & July 2022 / no match visited

Timeline

1925 / Two football clubs see the daylight in the town of Marche-en-Famenne; first, there is Union Marche FC, founded in March 1925, closely followed by FC Saint-Louis Marche, four months younger than its rivals. Both clubs join the Belgian Football Association
1926 / Upon the introduction of the matricule system, Union Marche FC obtains matricule 476, with FC Saint-Louis Marche receiving matricule 538.
1929 / Champions in Belgian Luxembourg's Division 2, the highest provincial level at the time, Union Marche FC accedes to Promotion, the third and lowest national division. The experience at this level is no less than catastrophic, though, with the club losing 25 of their 26 league games, ending up with a goal difference of 31-167 (-136) - and a return to Belgian Luxembourg's regional divisions in 1930.
1932 / Due to reasons unknown, FC Saint-Louis Marche folds, ceasing all activities, while Union Marche FC does not enter a team for the 1932-33 season. Union folds in 1933.
1933 / A committee is founded of former members of Saint-Louis and Union to form a new football club in Marche-en-Famenne. This activity results in the foundation of Entente Marche Football Club (FC). One of the 14 founding members, Edouard Michel, becomes the new club's first chairman. Entente's colours are black and white; the same as Union Marche had worn. Upon joining the Belgian Football Association, the club obtains matricule 1954. From the beginning, the club plays its football at Lieu-dit-Pirire, just south of the town centre. After the war, the ground is renamed Stade Léon Lambert in honour of a local resistance fighter who was murdered by the Germans in KZ Gross-Rosen in 1944.
1934 / Successful in its first season, Entente Marche FC obtains the title in Belgian Luxembourg's Division 3. In the following years, the club comes close to a promotion to the national leagues several times, just missing out on that opportunity in 1938 and 1939 in test matches against ES Mussonaise and Excelsior Virton respectively.
1953 / Winning the title in Belgian Luxembourg's Provincial League 2B, Entente Marche FC accedes to Provincial League 1 for the first time.
1957 / Finishing in first place in Provincial League 1, the club begins a spell of three seasons of national league football in 'Promotion' or National Division 4. With a 7th place in National Division 4D, the 1957-58 season is the most successful year in club history.
1958 / Entente's youth player Jacky Beurlet, 14 years old at the time, signs a contract with R Standard de Liège. Experiencing his breakthrough at that club in 1961, Beurlet serves the 'Rouches' for thirteen seasons - and with three international games for Belgium to his credit, as well as a selection for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, he is Marche-en-Famenne's most successful footballer of all times.
1964 / The club changes its colours, from now on playing in green and white (the old colours of Saint-Louis Marche FC) instead of black and white.
1967 / After seven seasons in P1, Entente Marche FC suffers relegation to Provincial League 2.
1972 / Winning the title in Provincial League 2B, Entente Marche FC begins a new spell of five seasons at Belgian Luxembourg's highest provincial level.
1983 / Upon its 50th anniversary, Entente Marche FC obtains the royal epithet, thus becoming Royale Entente Marche Football Club.
1984 / Champions in P2C, R Entente Marche FC finds itself in Provincial League 1 again after an absence of seven years.
1992 / The club moves from its old Stade Léon Lambert, in the hamlet of Pirire just to the south of Marche-en-Famenne proper (immediately to thw est of the premises occupied by Rugby Club Famenne since 1985) to the newly built Centre Sportif et Culturel at Chaussée de l'Ourthe. Apart from facilities for several other sports, the park disposes of two football pitches. The main pitch, surrounded by an athletics track, is adorned with a small covered stand.
1996 / Losing a test match against RUS Chestrolaise, R Entente Marche FC has to say goodbye to Provincial League 1 - as it turns out, for good.
2003 / A humiliating relegation sees the club sink back to Provincial League 3, the lowest provincial division in Belgian Luxembourg.
2012 / Due to financial difficulties, R Entente Marche FC, in P3 for the last nine seasons of its existence, ceases all activities. Its matricule 1954 is erased from Belgium's FA's official lists one year later. Still in 2012, a successor club is founded, Olympic Marche Football Club (matricule 9593; oddly, the logo of the club reads Olympic Marchois FC instead of Marche), which takes the place of Entente at the Centre Sportif Local.
2015 / After an existence of only three seasons - all spent in Belgian Luxembourg's Provincial League 3 -, Olympic Marche FC concludes a merger with Union Sportive Waha, becoming Union Famenne Waha-Marche. The new merger club retains Waha's matricule 8350. First team football moves to Waha's ground at Rue du Point du Jour, while pitch 2 at Marche's Centre Sportif Local remains in use for training purposes. From 2015 onwards, the former main pitch in Marche-en-Famenne has been used exclusively for athletics.
2019 / The side pitch in Marche is equipped with a synthetic surface. Meanwhile, this second pitch is no longer used by UF Waha-Marche's youth academy, but serves local schools as well as training sessions organised by Marche-en-Famenne's city hall for youth players affiliated to clubs in the vicinity of Marche (R Entente Roy-Lignières-Grimbiémont / R Jeunesse Réunie d'Aye FC / Union Famenne Waha-Marche) as well as young, aspiring players not affiliated to any club.
2022 / R Entente Durbuy, evicted from its Stade Communal 'Basse Commène' in Barvaux-sur-Ourthe after a conflict with local authorities as well as other clubs belonging to the municipality of Durbuy, moves its first team football to the synthetic pitch in Marche-en-Famenne. Playing in ACFF's Amateur Division 3 - the fifth and lowest national division -, R Entente Durbuy brings back national league football to the town of Marche-en-Famenne for the first time in 62 (!) years.