BELGIUM: RRC Bruxelles (1902-1948)

Stadion De Ganzenvijver = Stade du Vivier d'Oie, Brussels = Brussel = Bruxelles Uccle = Ukkel (formerly Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles)

Belgium, Brussels Capital Area

August 2009 & July 2022 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1894 / Foundation of Racing Foot-Ball Club, the football branch of Racing Club - an athletics club from Brussels founded in 1891. Racing's footballers play their home matches at Vélodrome de Longchamps in Uccle.
• 1895 / The club joins UBSSA, forerunner of the current Belgium's Football Association, as Racing Club (RC) de Bruxelles. The team is one of the founding members of Belgium's highest football division, initially referred to as Coupe de Championnat.
• 1897 / Racing Club de Bruxelles obtains a first national league title.
• 1900 / One of the powerhouses of the embryonal stages of Belgian football, Racing Club de Bruxelles heralds a period of dominance in the Division d'Honneur, as the highest national division is meanwhile called, by winning its second title. The club prolongates its title in 1901, 1902, and 1903.
• 1902 / RC de Bruxelles moves into the newly built Stade du Vivier d'Oie (or in Dutch: Ganzenvijverstadion), abandoning the Vélodrome de Longchamps. 
• 1903 / At Stade du Vivier d'Oie, a covered stand, built in reinforced concrete, is inaugurated.
• 1904 / The Stade du Vivier d'Oie hosts Belgium first-ever international game, a 3-3 draw with France, witnessed by some 1,500 spectators.
• 1908 / RC de Bruxelles obtains its sixth - and also last-ever - national title.
• 1912 / The club wins its first - and only-ever - nationwide Belgian Cup.
• 1921 / The club acquires the royal epithet, thus becoming Royal Racing Club (RRC) de Bruxelles.
• 1925 / RRC Bruxelles suffers the humiliation of a first-ever relegation to the second tier of the national football pyramid, only to bounce back one year later.
• 1926 / Belgium's FA introduces the matricule system, with RRC de Bruxelles receiving matricule 6.
• 1932 / After two more years at the second level, RRC Bruxelles manages a promotion - and two more seasons of top-flight football. 
• 1937 / The nadir of the club's pre-war history, RRC Bruxelles suffers a relegation to Promotion, the third and lowest national level. 
• 1942 / After two promotions in four years, RRC Bruxelles is back at the top level of Belgium's football pyramid, but the stay at that level does not last longer than one season.
• 1945 / Retaking its place in the Division d'Honneur thanks to an extension of the number of clubs admitted at that level, RRC de Bruxelles begins a spell of seven more seasons of top-flight football.
• 1948 / RRC Bruxelles abandons the Stade du Vivier d'Oie, henceforth playing their football at the newly built Stade des Trois Tilleuls (Drielindenstadion) in Watermael-Boitsfort; incidentally, this grand new stadium plan was the brainchild of RRC de Bruxelles' president at the time, Joseph Devos, whose memory has been perpetuated at Stade du Vivier d'Oie with a plaque. Since the football branch's departure, the Stade du Vivier d'Oie has been in use exclusively for matches of RRC de Bruxelles' field hockey branch.
• 2010 / The covered stand at Stade du Vivier d'Oie is granted historical monument status. 

Note: Below, a compilation of photos of two different (obviously non-matchday) visits: pictures 1-7 & 10-13 = July 2022 / pictures 8-9 & 14 = August 2009 / picture 15 = picture postcard of the stadium in its pre-war heyday. Note that, some time between my two visits, the bits of terracing in front of the monumental stand must have been covered with grass (cp. pictures 9-10).

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author