BELGIUM: RCS Rebecquois (B) (± 1989-1998) / RUS Rebecquoise (B) (1998-) / R Union Saint-Gilloise (B) (2022-2023)

Stade André Cheron "Complexe du Gobard" - terrain 2, Rebecq-Rognon = Roosbeek (B ground of RUS Rebecquoise & R Union Saint-Gilloise, formerly B ground of RCS Rebecquois)

Belgium, province: Walloon Brabant

30 X 2022 / R Union Saint-Gilloise B - FC Ganshoren 2-2 / ACFF Amateur Division 2 (= BE level 4)

Timeline

• 1930 / Foundation of Cercle Sportif (CS) Rebecquois, matricule 1614. It is unclear when CS Rebecquois moved into Complexe du Gobard, renamed Stade André Cheron in 1971, but the club may very well have played on this pitch from the very outset.
• 1955 / CS Rebecquois obtains the royal epithet, becoming Royal Cercle Sportif (RCS) Rebecquois.
• ± 1989 / A second pitch is added to Stade André Cheron. This 'terrain 2' is situated on an elevation on the eastern side of the ground's main pitch.
• 1998 / RCS Rebecquois concludes a merger with US Quenastoise, forming Royale Union Sportive (RUS) Rebecquoise, retaining Rebecq's matricule 1614. All activities move to Rebecq's Stade André Cheron, while Quenast's ground at Chemin de la Chaussée is abandoned.
• 2011 / With an ever increasing number of youth players joining the club - by 2011, RUS Rebecquoise's youth academy comprises some 230 players -, the three pitches of Stade André Cheron are often impracticable due to the extensive use made of them, regularly forcing the club's board to hire pitches at the Belgian FA's Training Centre in nearby Tubize. In the summer of 2011, pitch 2 of Stade André Cheron is equipped with a 3G surface. Moreover, a third pitch is added to the east of pitch 2, thus solving the club's capacity problems once and for all.
• 2022 / With the inclusion of a set of B teams of professional league sides into the Belgian national league pyramid, R Union Saint-Gilloise is faced with a problem. Originally planning to host its B team's home games in ACFF Amateur Division 2 at its training centre, Plaine des Sports 'Corneille Barca' in Brussels-Anderlecht, the ground is rejected as unfit for national league football by Belgium's FA. Subsequently, Union B hosts its first home game, against RFC Meux, at Nivelles' Domaine Militaire, but, unhappy with the facilities at that ground, agrees to play its second home match, against RCS Verlaine, at the away team's stadium, Stade des Six Bonniers. Eventually, in October 2022, an arrangement is found by hiring pitch 2 of RUS Rebecquoise's Stade André Cheron for the remainder of the 2022-23 season. The premises were not completely untrodden ground for Union, as the club's reserves' matches in the previous season had been partly held at this exact venue as well - in alternation with Complexe Barca, Overijse's Begijnhofstadion, and the Belgian FA's Training Centre in Tubize.
• 2023 / R Union Saint-Gilloise moved its B team's home matches to Complexe Heymbosch in Jette, Brussels.

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

BELGIUM: Kosto Vrienden (±1962-1974) / FC Kosto (1974-1975) / DK Torhout (1975-1999) / Torhout 1992 KM (C) (1999-2001) / NSK Torhout 2001 (2001-2002) / SK Torhout (2002-±2006, 2021-) / SK Torhout (B) (±2006-2016) / SK Torhout (C) (2016-2021)

Stedelijk Voetbalveld 'De Verloren Kost', Torhout De Driekoningen = Sint-Jozef-Arbeider (SK Torhout, formerly Kosto Vrienden / FC Kosto / DK Torhout / C ground of Torhout 1992 KM / NSK Torhout 2001 / B & C ground of SK Torhout)

Belgium, province: West Flanders

30 X 2022 / SK Torhout - KVV Aartrijke Reserves 0-6 / West Flanders, Regional Reserves' League - group E

Timeline

• ±1962 / Foundation of Kosto Vrienden, a recreational football team in De Driekoningen, a hamlet just to the north of Torhout. Though no definite proof is available, it is probable that Kosto Vrienden played at Terrein 'De Verloren Kost' from its foundation in the early 1960s onwards. 
• 1974 / After twelve seasons of recreational football, Kosto Vrienden seeks membership of Belgium's Football Association under the name FC Kosto. Upon being accepted as new FA member, FC Kosto receives matricule 8288.
• 1975 / In April 1975, FC Kosto converts its name to become Verloren Kost (VK) Torhout, but apparently the club's board changed its mind rather rapidly - as a new name change took place the following months, with VK Torhout becoming Driekoningen (DK) Torhout - though, locally, the club is better known as 'De Kost (rather than Driekoningen) Torhout'. In the following two decades, operating in the shadows of KVK Torhout and KSK Torhout, DK Torhout remains a modest force in West Flanders' provincial league system.
• 1999 / DK Torhout withdraws its membership from Belgium's FA. It is unclear if the club folded at the same time or continued its existence for some more years as a recreational team. Terrein De Verloren Kost, DK's ground, is taken over by Torhout 1992 KM as a training ground, which it makes use of in addition to its two stadiums in Torhout's town centre, Stadion De Velodroom and Stedelijk Sportstadion. 
• 2000 / Thus far a privately owned ground in the hands of a local landholding house, De Potter d'Indoye, Terrein De Verloren Kost is taken over by Torhout's municipal authorities.
• 2001 / Nine years after the conclusion of a merger between Torhout's two main football clubs, KVK Torhout and KSK Torhout, resulting in the foundation of Torhout 1992 KM, a group of disaffected members of this club with a past in KSK Torhout breaks away under the leadership of former KSK strongman Rudi Vanneste. The newly formed club, New Sportkring (NSK) Torhout 2001, joins the Belgian FA under matricule 9388. Being deprived of the use of either of the two stadiums in Torhout proper, NSK Torhout 2001 settles at Stedelijk Voetbalveld De Verloren Kost. 
• 2002 / In its first season, NSK Torhout 2001 succeeds in winning promotion from Provincial League 4. That same year, permission is given by Belgium's FA to (re)instate the name Sportkring (SK) Torhout. 
• ±2006 / Torhout's municipal authorities approve a request of SK Torhout to move into Stedelijk Sportstadion, home ground of the erstwhile KSK Torhout (matr. 822) from 1963 to 1992. Henceforth, SK Torhout's first team football takes place at the multisports stadium, which it shares with Torhout 1992 KM's youth academy. In the meantime, SK Torhout set up a modest youth academy of its own, of which the activities are subdivided between Stedelijk Sportstadion and De Verloren Kost.
• 2014 / In spite of winning the title in Provincial League 2A, thus acceding to West Flanders' Provincial League 1 for the third time in seven years, SK Torhout withdraws its first team from the regular provincial leagues. Instead, in the 2014-15 season, the club is represented just by a reserves' team and several youth squads.
• 2015 / After a one-year absence, SK Torhout returns to regular first team football, restarting in Provincial League 4.
• 2016 / The main pitch of Stadion De Velodroom, home of Torhout 1992 KM's first team, is equipped with a 3G surface by Torhout's town authorities. Subsequently, Stephaan De Pessemier, SK Torhout's chairman at the time, files a request at Torhout's town-hall, demanding the right to move his club's first team to the new 3G as well - an appeal which, in spite of protests on the part of Torhout 1992 KM, is eventually granted. Meanwhile, SK Torhout retains its lease of Stedelijk Sportstadion - meanwhile renamed Sportcentrum Benny Vansteelant -, which it shares with KM, as well as its pitch at Verloren Kost for lower team football and training sessions.
• 2021 / Once again, SK Torhout withdraws its first team, playing at Provincial League 3 level. From 2021 onwards, SK's reserves' team has played its football at Stedelijk Voetbalveld De Verloren Kost, while the club's youth academy subdivides its activities between 'De Kost' and the side-pitches of Sportcentrum Benny Vansteelant - which it shares with KM Torhout's youth teams.

Note: Many thanks to SK Torhout's former chairman Stephaan De Pessemier for digging out some crucial extra information used in the timeline above.

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

BELGIUM: KDC Ruddervoorde (1987-) / Cercle Brugge KSV (B) (2020-2023)

Sportcentrum Ridefort, Ruddervoorde (KDC Ruddervoorde, formerly B ground of Cercle Brugge KSV)

Belgium, province: West Flanders

29 X 2022 / Cercle Brugge KSV B - KFC Merelbeke 1-3 / VFV Amateur Division 2A (= BE level 4)

Timeline

• 1926 / Foundation of Daring Club Ruddervoorde. For the first seventeen years of its existence, the club did not join the official Belgian FA; possibly, like many of the other clubs in this part of West Flanders, DC Ruddervoorde was a member of Vlaams(ch)e Voetbalbond, a league association which was largely discredited after World War II due to its collaborationist stance.
• 1943 / Daring Club Ruddervoorde switches from Vlaamse Voetbalbond to membership of the offical Belgian Football Association. Upon joining, the club obtains matricule 3976. In West Flanders' Provincial Leagues, modest DC Ruddervoorde never rose to a level higher than Provincial League 3 - the second-lowest reach of the provincial football pyramid.
• 1955 / Acquiring the royal epithet, DC Ruddervoorde adapts its name to become Koninklijke Daring Club (KDC) Ruddervoorde.
• 1987 / Abandoning their previous ground, situated at the back of Brouwerij De Gomme, a local beer brewery, KDC Ruddervoorde moves into the newly built Sportcentrum Ridefort.
• 1990 / Having played in KDC Ruddervoorde's youth academy for four seasons, nine-year-old Thomas Buffel switches to Cercle Brugge KSV. Destined for a long professional career (1999-2019), Buffel would go on to play for Feyenoord, SBV Excelsior, Rangers FC, Cercle Brugge KSV, KRC Genk, and SV Zulte Waregem - as well as winning 35 caps for Belgium's national team.
• 2008 / Having spent the preceding seasons in Provincial League 4, KDC Ruddervoorde wins the promotion play-off final against derby rivals SKD Hertsberge to accede to Provincial League 3.
• 2020 / After dropping back into P4 in 2019 after eleven consecutive seasons of Provincial League 3 football, KDC Ruddervoorde immediately finds its way back to P3 by finishing first in Provincial League 4B in 2019-20, a season cut short by the COVID-19 lockdown. Meanwhile, in the summer of 2020, Cercle Brugge KSV relocates its reserves team's matches from Jan Breydelstation - veld 6 to KDC Ruddervoorde's Sportcomplex Ridefort. Exasperated by the lack of maintenance of Jan Breydel's main side-pitch - an old 3G badly in need of replacement - as well as the insufficient lighting, Cercle started looking for alternatives. After having been turned down by KFC Varsenare, who were unwilling to accept Cercle's reserves as groundsharers at their Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex Van Caloen - where Cercle's B team had been home for some seasons previously (±2008-12) -, Cercle successfully turned to KDC Ruddervoorde. 
• 2022 / A selected group of reserves' teams of professional league sides in Belgium are integrated into the regular football pyramid. Based on their performance in the reserves' divisions the previous season, Cercle Brugge KSV's B team qualified for VFV Amateur Division 2, the fourth tier of Belgian football. 
• 2023 / After one season of playing at Sportcentrum Ridefort, Cercle Brugge KSV moved its B team's home matches to Gemeentelijk Sportcomplex De Valkaart in Oostkamp.

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

BELGIUM: VK Scheldezonen Branst (1983-1994) / VK Branst (1994-2001) / KVS Branst (2001-2020) / FCS Mariekerke-Branst (B) (2020-)

Gemeentelijk Sportpark Zuid, Branst (B ground of FCS Mariekerke Branst, formerly VK Scheldezonen Branst / VK Branst / KVS Branst)

Belgium, province: Antwerp

29 X 2022 / FCS Mariekerke-Branst Reserves - K Schelle Sport Reserves 0-2 / Antwerp, Regional Reserves - group H

Timeline

• 1938 / Foundation of FC Eendracht Branst, the first football club in Branst, a hamlet in Klein Brabant situated halfway between Mariekerke and Bornem. The club joined the so-called Vlaams(ch)e Voetbalbond, a rival of the official Belgian Football Association. FC Eendracht Branst's pitch was situated on a sandy area near the location where, in 1947, Branst's Lourdes grotto was constructed. 
• ±1941 / Due to the hardships of World War II and German occupation, many smaller football clubs in Flanders fold - and FC Eendracht Branst is among them.
• 1950 / Filing a request at the official Belgian Football Association - the Vlaamse Voetbalbond being largely discreted in the post-war years due to its collaborationist stance -, a group of football enthusiasts in Branst makes an attempt at refounding FC Eendracht Branst. However, due to an official Belgian FA rule stating that a municipality can only have one football club per 5,000 inhabitants; and, with Branst being part of Bornem, a municipality with a number of inhabitants lower than 10,000 and two football clubs with FA membership (VV Bornem and FC Klein-Brabant) within its borders, the application is refused.
• 1951 / In a clever attempt to circumvent FA regulations, the same group of football enthusiasts in Branst file a new application for membership of their club, however, under a different name: FC Scheldezonen Weert. Weert is a hamlet to the west of Branst, but an independent municipality - without a football club on its territory. Although the club's pitch is the same 'Grotterrein' (or 'Grotto Pitch') in Branst which was used by FC Eendracht Branst before the war, the appeal is granted; upon being accepted as new FA members, the new FC Scheldezonen Weert - often officiously referred to as FCS Weert-Branst, FC Scheldezonen or simply 'Branst' - obtain matricule 5517.
• 1956 / Although markedly unsuccessful in the first decades of its existence, which are spent in Antwerp's Provincial Leagues 3 and 4, local derbies draw impressive crowds to Branst's Grotterrein. For the first-ever edition of the derby between FC Scheldezonen Weert & FC Mariekerke, no fewer than 1,000 spectators show up.
• 1961 / FC Scheldezonen's Grotterrein has to make way for a sand quarry - which, even later, is replaced by housing. Count John de Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde, Castellan of Bornem, puts a plot of leasehold land at the club's disposal at Asseveldweg (modern-day Buizerdlaan). With the plot about half a yard below route level, Scheldezonen's new pitch is soggy and often water-logged; due to these circumstances, the new ground is nicknamed 'Het Waterveld' (Water Pitch). At the inauguration, the new ground is blessed by the local priest, Fr Van Riet.   
• 1969 / With Bornem's number of inhabitants meanwhile having crossed the 10,000 mark, FC Scheldezonen Weert is allowed to adapt its name to become FC Scheldezonen Branst.
• 1975 / In a modification of club bylaws, FC Scheldezonen Branst becomes a non-profit organisation; with a name change being obligatory in these circumstances, FC Scheldezonen Branst's board adapts the name of the club, which is henceforth known officially as Voetbalklub (VK) Scheldezonen Branst (occasionally abbreviated to VKS Branst).
• 1981 / Following frequent pleas by VK Scheldezonen Branst directed at Bornem's municipal authorities, imploring them to improve the state of the club's ground - certainly in view of the fact that a state-of-the-art sports park, Domein Breeven, had been constructed for neighbour club KSV Bornem (a merger of FC Klein-Brabant and VV Bornem) in the mid-1970s - works at Asseveldweg / Buizerdlaan on a completely new park on the same location, financed by Bornem's town hall, get underway in the fall of 1981. In the meantime, the club has to find a temporary solution for their home matches. After playing its first two home matches on pitch 2 of Domein Breeven in Bornem and two more months on the old pitch of FC Klein-Brabant (possibly this was at Café 't Zandhof, Barelstraat), the club moves into 't Konijnenkoerke, a temporary ground created near the old Grotterrein; a lease agreement for the makeshift pitch is signed with Count de Sainte-Aldegonde.
• 1983 / Inauguration of the newly created Gemeentelijk Sportpark Zuid; August 26th, 1983. Compared to the old (pre-1981) situation, the pitch has been given a quarter turn, while the entrance gate is still in the same position (Buizerdlaan). For the time being, the lease agreement for 't Konijnenkoerke is extended - and in the following years, the pitch is used for VK Scheldezonen Branst's lower team football and training sessions.
• 1994 / VK Scheldezonen Branst adapts its name to become Voetbalklub (VK) Branst. That same year, Count Sainte-Aldegonde ends the lease agreement for the club's training pitch, 't Konijnenkoerke, which is given up to make way for housing. In return, the landlord offered the club yet another plot of land, very close to Sportpark Zuid, at Riddermoerstraat. The new B pitch was inaugurated in the fall of 1994.
• 1995 / A wooden clubhouse and changing rooms are added to VK Branst's B ground at Riddermoerstraat.
• 1998 / For the first time in 47 years of club history, VK Branst accedes to Provincial League 2. The adventure at that level lasts no longer than one season, though. The following two decades are spent alternatingly in Provincial Leagues 3 and 4.
• 2001 / Upon the club's fiftieth anniversary, VK Branst acquires the royal epithet; simultaneously, the decision is taken to reinclude the old reference Scheldezonen in the name. Henceforth, the official club name is: Koninklijke Voetbalclub Scheldezonen Branst, usually abbreviated to simply KVS Branst.
• 2020 / KVS Branst spends its last season as an independent club, 2019-20, in Provincial League 3. A merger agreement is signed with FC Mariekerke - the result being FC Scheldezonen (FCS) Mariekerke-Branst, retaining Mariekerke's matricule 5719 - and thereby losing the royal epithet which Branst had obtained in 2001. Following the merger, first team football moves to Mariekerke's Complex De Witte Molen, while the two pitches in Branst - Gemeentelijk Sportpark Zuid as well as the B pitch at Riddermolenstraat - are retained for lower team football and training sessions.

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