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

Sunday 30 October 2022

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.