Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: VK Branst (B) (1994-2001) / KVS Branst (B) (2001-2020) / FCS Mariekerke-Branst (C) (2020-)

Saturday, 24 September 2022

BELGIUM: VK Branst (B) (1994-2001) / KVS Branst (B) (2001-2020) / FCS Mariekerke-Branst (C) (2020-)

Riddermoerstraat, Branst (C ground of FCS Mariekerke-Branst, formerly B ground of VK Branst & KVS Branst)

Belgium, province: Antwerp

24 IX 2022 / SK Watertoren - The D-C Boys 4-1 / KAVVV Afdeling Antwerpen, Eerste Afdeling (= KAVVV Antwerp level 1)

Timeline

1951 / Foundation of FC Scheldezonen Weert (matricule 5517). The modest Antwerp provincial league club, which is not from Weert but from nearby Branst, undergoes several name changes in the following decades, becoming FC Scheldezonen Branst (FCS Branst, 1969), VK Scheldezonen Branst (VKS Branst, 1975), and VK Branst (1994).
1983 / Inauguration of Gemeentelijk Sportpark Zuid, VK Scheldezonen Branst's new ground at Buizerdlaan (formerly Asseveldweg).
1994 / Count Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde terminates the lease agreement of VKS Branst's B ground, the so-called Konijnenkoerke, some 100 metres away from their main park - and used since 1981. Instead, he puts another plot of land at the club's disposal, closer to Sportpark Zuid, at Riddermoerstraat. Bornem's town council helps out by building a parking for this new ground.
1995 / Built by club volunteers, a small clubhouse and a set of changing rooms along the pitch at Riddermoerstraat are inaugurated.
2001 / Acquiring the royal epithet, VK Branst changes its name to become Koninklijke Voetbalclub Scheldezonen Branst - mostly abbreviated to simply KVS Branst.
2020 / KVS Branst concludes a merger with FC Mariekerke, becoming Football Club Scheldezonen (FCS) Mariekerke-Branst and retaining Mariekerke's matricule 5719. Henceforth, first team football is played at Mariekerke's Stadion De Witte Molen, with lower team football partly moving to Gemeentelijk Sportpark Zuid in Branst. The B ground at Riddermoerstraat in Branst remains in use for training sessions, but, with fewer teams using the pitch, FCS Mariekerke-Branst allows recreational team SK Watertoren to make use of it as well on Saturday afternoons; SK Watertoren, founded in 2011, is a member of Antwerp's branch of recreational league KAVVV (Koninklijke Antwerpse Vereniging van Vriendenclubs). Before moving to Branst in the summer of 2020, SK Watertoren played its football on one of the side pitches of Recreatie- en Sportdomein Breeven, Bornem.