Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond (±1981-1998) / RFC Perwez (1986-2024) / JS Chaumont-Gistoux (2016-2017) / SC Perwez (2024-)

Saturday, 27 August 2022

BELGIUM: SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond (±1981-1998) / RFC Perwez (1986-2024) / JS Chaumont-Gistoux (2016-2017) / SC Perwez (2024-)

Stade Louis Perniaux, Perwez = Perwijs (RFC Perwez, formerly SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond / JS Chaumont-Gistoux)

Belgium, province: Walloon Brabant

27 VIII 2022 / RFC Perwez - ROFC Stockel 1-0 / Brabant ACFF, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 6)

Timeline

1926 / Foundation of a first football club in Perwez, called Perwez Sport. Upon joining Belgium's Football Association, Perwez Sport receives registration number 652. The club plays at a ground at Rue de la Cayenne, usually referred to as the so-called Pré Kinart.
1928 / Following back-to-back promotions, Perwez Sport finds itself in Brabant's Provincial League 2, holding out at that level for two seasons.
1934 / After eight seasons, Perwez Sport folds, ceasing all activities.
1936 / Two years after the demise of Perwez Sport, a successor club sees the daylight, Football Club (FC) Perwez (registration number 2364). The club first takes part with a first team in Brabant's Provincial Leagues in 1937. Unlike the former Perwez Sport, FC Perwez does not play at Pré Kinart, but at a ground at Rue Emile de Brabant - the location now used for the playgrounds of Perwez's communal primary school.
1942 / In Thorembais-Saint-Trond, a village just to the north of Perwez, a football club is founded, Union Thorembaisienne (registration number 3588). It is unclear where this club's ground was situated (anyone able to provide more information regarding this matter is welcome to contact me!).
1947 / Five years after its foundation, Union Thorembaisienne folds, having fielded a first team for two seasons only (1942-44).
±1951 / Moving to the old ground of Perwez Sport, Pré Kinart, FC Perwez abandons its premises at Rue de Brabant.
1956 / Foundation of Sporting Club (SC) de Thorembais-Saint-Trond. Upon affiliation with the Belgian Football Association, the club receives registration number 5929. Probably, the club played at a ground situated at Chaussée de Charleroi from its foundation onwards.
1960 / Moving away from Pré Kinart, FC Perwez settles at a new ground situated at Route d'Aische-en-Refail (the modernt-day Rue Saint-Roch), renting a pasture from Mr Hemptinne, a local farmer.
1968 / After alternating spells in Brabant's Provincial Leagues 2 and 3, RFC Perwez descends into the abyss of Provincial League 4, the lowest level of the football pyramid, for the first time.
1976 / Inauguration of the new Centre Sportif de Perwez at Rue des Marronniers, Perwez. In the first years of its existence, however, there is no football club making use of the ground, which is used exclusively for athletics.
±1981 / SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond moves its activities from Chaussée de Charleroi to the Centre Sportif de Perwez.
1986 / FC Perwez winst the title in Brabant's Provincial League 4A, acceding to P3. That summer, the move is made from the old ground at Route d'Aische-en-Refail to the Centre Sportif, where the club starts a groundshare with SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond. That same year, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, FC Perwez obtains the royal epithet, thus becoming Royal Football Club (RFC) Perwez.
1998 / Having withdrawn its first team in the course of the 1997-98 season, SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond folds, ceasing all activities. For the last 35 years of its existence, the club's first team steadily played in Brabant's Provincial League 4, the lowest regular league level.
2003 / After decades of Provincial League 3 and 4 football, RFC Perwez manages a promotion to Provincial League 2 - playing at that level for the first time in 43 years. The spell in P2 lasts for four seasons.
2010 / Perwez's Centre Sportif is renamed Stade Louis Perniaux in honour of one of RFC Perwez's most loyal supporters and benefactors. Louis Perniaux passed away eight years later, in 2018.
2016 / Being forced out of its own Stade André Docquier by the Chaumont-Gistoux town council, Jeunesse Sportive (JS) Chaumont-Gistoux (founded in 1995 / registration number 9282) is allowed to groundshare with RFC Perwez at Stade Louis Perniaux.
2017 / Due to having forcibly cut its ties with its home soil - and moreover being faced with the foundation of a successor club, FC Ronvau Chaumont - JS Chaumont-Gistoux's board decides to cease its activities; the club is absorbed into RFC Perwez without the latter changing its name as a result.
2022 / After promotions from P4 to P3 (2016), P3 to P2 (due to a league reform, 2018), RFC Perwez wins the title in Brabant's francophone Provincial League 2B, acceding to Provincial League 1 for the first time in the 86 years of the club's existence.
2023 / Going from strength to strength, RFC Perwez now clinches the title in Brabant ACFF's Provincial League 1, 8 points ahead of closest followers FC Genappe. As such, the club wins promotion to the national leagues and ACFF Amateur Division 3 for the first time ever.
2024 / In the best season in club history, RFC Perwez finishes in a respectable seventh place in ACFF Amateur Division 3A, the fifth level of the Belgian football pyramid. Meanwhile, a new club sees the daylight in Perwez under the name Sporting Club (SC) de Perwez, which acquires membership of the Belgian FA with registration number 9825. SC Perwez starts its life in the bottom division of Brabant's provincial leagues, Provincial League 3, playing its first team football on the synthetic side-pitch of Stade Louis Perniaux. Meanwhile, the RFC Perwez project falters in the first half of the 2024-25 season, with the club suffering one heavy defeat after the other in Amateur Division 3. The club folds midway through the season, ceasing all activities in December 2024. Registration number 2364 is erased from the Belgian FA's official lists.

Note: Thanks to Philippe Perniaux, son of Louis Perniaux, for providing me with invaluable parts of information on the history of RFC Perwez and SC Thorembais-Saint-Trond.