BELGIUM: CS Palace (19??-±1979) / AC Milanello (1972-1998) / AS Bari (±1979-1999) / US Pescara (ALFA) (1999-2019) / AC Milanello Vottem (2008-2012) / AC Milanello Herstal matr. 9517 (2012-2013) / FC Napoli Herstal (2019-)

Terrain au Romarin, Vottem (FC Napoli Herstal, formerly CS Palace / AC Milanello / AS Bari / US Pescara / AC Milanello Vottem / AC Milanello Herstal matr. 9517)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

11 IX 2022 / FC Celtics - FC Fontin II 3-0 / ALFA Dimanche Division 2 (= ALFA Sunday level 3)

11 IX 2022 / FC Jeneffe - AF Hony 1-6 / ALFA Dimanche Division 1 (= ALFA Sunday level 2)

Timeline

• 19?? / Documentation of the early years of the so-called Terrain au Romarin, situated at Rue Florent Boclinville in Vottem, is sadly lacking. It is unclear for which club the ground was originally built - let alone when it was inaugurated. What is clear, though, is that, by the early 1970s, a recreational club by the name of Cercle Sportif (CS) Palace was home at the ground. CS Palace played its football in the so-called Fédération Liégeoise, a Saturday league of clubs not affiliated to the Belgian Football Association (anyone able to provide more information about the early history of Terrain au Romarin is explicitly invited to contact me!).
• 1972 / AC Milanello, a recreational club of Italian immigrants in Liège, joins CS Palace in a groundshare at Rue Florent Boclinville. AC Milanello saw the daylight four years previously, and, before settling at Terrain au Romarin, had played its football at two different grounds in Rocourt and, in 1971-72, at the ground occupied by FC Montemauro from that club's foundation in 1973 onwards until 2019, Rue des Mésanges, Vottem.
• ±1979 / AS Bari, another recreational club of Italian immigrants, founded in 1971, moved into the ground at Rue Boclinville; previously, AS Bari played its football at a ground in Wihogne (Nudorp), a village to the north of Liège. The arrival of AS Bari, which, like AC Milanello, was a member of the ALFA (Association Liégeoise de Football Amateur), must have coincided with the demise or departure of CS Palace. The year 1979 given here is no more than a wild guess; any other year in the second half of the 1970s or (very) early 1980s is a possibility as well (more information is welcome on this subject as well).
• 1998 / Egged on by its chairman Pino Moia, AC Milanello makes the leap from ALFA to the Belgian Football Association, joining the official federation under matricule 9325. Adapting its name to become AC Milanello Herstal, the club moves away from Rue Boclinville, settling at Stade Pré-Wigy in Herstal - and, in conjunction with Herstal's municipal council, forcing out that ground's long-time user, AS Herstalienne SR, who continued to play for some more years on Pré-Wigy's side pitches before moving to Rue Emile Muraille, also in Herstal, in the early 2000s (probably 2002).
• 1999 / Under a new president from the Abruzzo region in Italy, AS Bari changes its name to become US Pescara.
• 2008 / Forced out of Stade Pré-Wigy, meanwhile sold to a project developer, AC Milanello Herstal, meanwhile playing in Provincial League 2, concludes a merger with R Prayon FC, with all activities moving to Prayon's ground at La Brouck. To make up for the disappearance of the name Milanello, a group of club supporters decides to refound the club as AC Milanello Vottem, settling at Rue Boclinville. This 'new' Milanello, with co-founder and chairman Sari Pace, joins the Belgian FA, obtaining matricule 9517.
• 2012 / AC Milanello Vottem changes its name to become AC Milanello Herstal - an even more emphatic echo of the predecessor club which merged with R Prayon FC in 2008.
• 2013 / Exasperated at the bad condition of the ground at Rue Boclinville, AC Milanello Herstal moves all its activities to Rue de l'Escousset in Milmort; it took club volunteers more than a year to refurbish this ground, which had seen no activities since the demise of R Milmort FC in 2010.
• 2019 / US Pescara's club chairman Giuseppe Dolmetti, himself having arrived in Belgium from his native Naples in the early 1980s - and former player/coach of AS Bari and US Pescara -, decides to rename the club FC Napoli Herstal.
• NOTE: over the years, many more (often ephemeral) recreational clubs have groundshared at Terrain au Romarin, Rue Boclinville. FC Jeneffe and FC Celtics - match photos below taken at their home matches - are but two examples.

Note 1: Special thanks go out to Sari Pace, founder and former chairman of AC Milanello Vottem, and Giuseppe Dolmetti, chairman of FC Napoli Herstal, for providing me with the bulk of information provided above (2022).

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of two different matches on the same day; of the match photos below, only picture 5 was taken during the FC Celtics - FC Fontin II encounter; all the others during the following match between FC Jeneffe and AF Hony.

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