LUXEMBOURG: CS Grevenmacher

Stade Op Flohr, Grevenmacher (CS Grevenmacher)

Luxembourg, canton: Grevenmacher

27 XI 2022 / CS Grevenmacher - FC Marisca Mersch 1-5 / Promotion d'Honneur (= LUX level 2)

Timeline

• 1909 / Foundation of Stade Mosellan Grevenmacher. The club, which does not take part in any official competition in the years preceding World War I, settles at a pitch at Lieu-dit 'Op Worbelt'.
• 1914 / A name change leads to the club henceforth being known as Club Sportif (CS) Grevenmacher.
• 1921 / CS Grevenmacher first enters a team in Luxembourg's regular leagues, being placed in Division 2, the fourth step of the Grand-Duchy's league pyramid. Around this same time, the club moves into a new ground, Terrain Pech, situated near the Pont de la Moselle.
• 1923 / The first success in club history, CS Grevenmacher finishes second in Division 2, thus acceding to Division 1. In the years leading up to World War II, the club mainly plays in D2, alternated with short excursions to D1 and D3.
• 1930 / Having played at Terrain Pech for some ten years, CS Grevenmacher moves into a new ground, Terrain Am Pietert.
• 1936 / CS Grevenmacher settles at Stade de la Moselle, a newly laid-out ground situated at the exit road leading to Mertert and Wasserbillig, near the old abattoir.
• 1940 / Forced by German occupation authorities to eliminate the French elements from its appellation, CS Grevenmacher changes its name to become FK Grevenmacher.
• 1944 / Upon liberation from German oppression, the old club name CS Grevenmacher is reinstated.
• 1947 / Following two promotions in a row, CS Grevenmacher finds itself in Promotion d'Honneur, the second level of the Grand-Duchy's league pyramid, for the first time.
• 1949 / Finishing third in Promotion d'Honneur, CS Grevenmacher accedes to National Division, the top flight of Luxembourg's football, for the first time in club history. The adventure does not last longer than one season, though, with relegation following in 1950.
• 1951 / Reaching the cup final for the first time, CS Grevenmacher holds top flight club SC Tétange to a 1-1 draw, but loses the replay (2-0). In the following years, the club is unlucky enough to lose three more cup finals - against FA Red Boys Differdange (1953), AS La Jeunesse d'Esch (1954), and Union Luxembourg (1959) respectively. 
• 1953 / Clinching the title in Promotion d'Honneur, CS Grevenmacher manages a return to National Division, destined to hold its own at this level for the best part of the following ten years, alternated with one season in Promotion d'Honneur (1955-56).
• 1960 / In the best season in club history so far, CS Grevenmacher finished third in National Division.
• 1962 / After a successful spell in National Division, 'CSG' drops back into Promotion d'Honneur. In the following 14 seasons, the club mainly plays at that level, alternated with two isolated seasons in the top flight (1968-69 & 1970-71).
• 1976 / Winning the title in Promotion d'Honneur, CS Grevenmacher returns to National Division. 
• 1983 / Although the new ground is not ready yet, CS Grevenmacher moves its first team football the newly built Stade Flohr in the course of the 1982-83 season. Stade de la Moselle remains in use for lower team football and training sessions.
• 1984 / Following eight consecutive seasons in National Division, with fifth places in the final ranking in 1980 and 1983 as best results, CSG drops back into Promotion d'Honneur.
• 1985 / Clinching first place in Promotion d'Honneur, CS Grevenmacher bounces straight back to the top flight of Luxembourg's football pyramid. On October 6th, 1985, the covered stand having been constructed, raising official capacity to 4,062, Stade Flohr (later renamed Stade Op Flohr) is inaugurated officially in the presence of Grevenmacher's mayor Victor Braun and the Grand-Duchy's minister of sports, Marc Fischbach. On the occasion, the premises are consecrated by deacon Emile Weyer. The ceremonies having been performed, CS Grevenmacher takes on AS La Jeunesse d'Esch, defeating the record champions 3-2.
• 1994 / Having proven itself as a stable factor in National Division in the previous seasons, CS Grevenmacher comes close to winning the league title - in the end finishing second behind FC Avenir Beggen. In all three following editions of Luxembourg's league championship, CSG finishes second again - on all of these three occasions preceded by AS La Jeunesse d'Esch. As a result, the club qualifies for European football for the first time, being defeated by Norway's Rosenborg BK in the UEFA Cup first qualifying round; after losing the home tie 1-2 at Stade Flohr, CS Grevenmacher receives a severe drubbing in Trondheim (6-0). Underlining its ambitions, the club buys Luxembourg international players Paul Koch and Marc Thomé - the latter of whom would go on to serve CS Grevenmacher as manager after hanging up his boots.
• 1995 / Picking up its first tangible silverware, CS Grevenmacher wins the cup final - after drawing 1-1 against AS La Jeunesse d'Esch, CSG wins the replay 3-2. In the ensuing Cup Winners Cup qualifier against Iceland's KR, Grevenmacher registers its first international success by winning the home match at Stade Flohr 3-2; unfortunately, the away match in Reykjavík is lost 2-0, resulting in elimination.
• 1996 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Georgia's FC Dinamo Tblisi (6-2 on aggregate).
• 1997 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Croatia's HNK Hajduk Split (6-1 on aggregate).
• 1998 / Reaching its sixth cup final, CS Grevenmacher wins the trophy by defeating FC Avenir Beggen (2-0). In the Cup Winners Cup first qualification round, the club is eliminated by Rumania's Rapid București (8-2 on aggregate).
• 1999 / Putting an end to his footballing career which saw him defending the colours of FC Aris Bonnevoie, AS La Jeunesse d'Esch, and FC Avenir Beggen before spending the last three years as an active player at Stade Op Flohr, Théo Scholten finishes on a total of 419 matches in National Division - only 5 less than record holder Denis Scuto. Scholten also played 21 matches in Luxembourg's national team (1984-90). Also in 1999, goalkeeper (and future Luxembourg international player) Jonathan Joubert, who spent his young years in FC Metz's youth academy, signs for CS Grevenmacher, destined to stay at the club for five seasons.  
• 2000 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Finland's HJK Helsinki (6-3 on aggregate). The home tie, which Grevenmacher won 2-0 - the club's second-ever European win -, was not played at Stade Op Flohr, which was not in conformity with UEFA's tightened safety regulations, but at Stade Josy Barthel in Luxembourg-Ville.
• 2001 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Greece's AEK (8-0 on aggregate).
• 2002 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Cyprus' Anorthosis Famagusta; after a 3-0 away defeat, a 2-0 victory for CSG at Stade Josy Barthel was not sufficient to manage a first-ever European aggregate win.
• 2003 / Having finished second in Luxembourg's National Division behind F91 Dudelange in all three previous seasons, CS Grevenmacher manages its first - and only-ever - national title win. The club also wins its third national cup, defeating FC Etzella Ettelbruck in the final (1-0). In the new season, CSG is drawn against FK Leotar Trebinje in the Champions League's first qualifying round, holding the Bosnian champions to a stalemate (0-0) at Stade Josy Barthel before suffering elimination after a 2-0 away loss. Unable to repeat the succes of the 2002-03 season, the club does not win any silverware in the following four years, neither managing to qualify for a European competition.
• 2008 / Defeating FC Victoria Rosport 4-1 in the final, CS Grevenmacher wins its fourth Luxembourg cup. In the UEFA Cup's qualifying round, the club is drawn against Iceland's title holders FH - suffering a suprisingly comprehensive 8-3 aggregate defeat, with the away tie being played at Kaplakriki in Hafnarfjörður.
• 2009 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by Lithuania's FK Vėtra (6-0 on aggregate).
• 2010 / For the second season running, CS Grevenmacher finishes third in National Division. Just like in 2002-03, the club's striker Daniel Huss is crowned top goalscorer of the league with 22 goals. In his career, Huss socred 228 goals in 364 matches in National Division, all of those played for CSG - giving him second place in the league's all-time top scorer list, headed by Armin Krings. Huss cannot score in the cup final, in which Grevenmacher suffers a 1-0 defeat at the hands of FC Differdange 03. In the 2009-10 UEFA Cup campaign, CSG again stumbles over the first hurdle, as Ireland's Dundalk FC, after being held to a 3-3 draw at Stade Josy Barthel, wins the tie at Oriel Park 2-1. Also in 2010, CS Grevenmacher's new clubhouse, built as an extension of the main stand of Stade Op Flohr, is inaugurated.
• 2012 / CS Grevenmacher is eliminated in the UEFA Cup's first qualifying round by KF Tirana. After losing the away tie at Stadiumi Kombëtar Qemal Stafa (2-0), the club holds the Albanians to a 0-0 draw, played at Dudelange's Stade Jos Nosbaum. To date, it is CS Grevenmacher's last European involvement. In 13 participations in the various international cup competitions, the club always stumbled over the first hurdle.
• 2016 / After an uninterrupted spell of 31 years in National Division, CS Grevenmacher, finishing in 14th place, is relegated to Promotion d'Honneur. 
• 2018 / The lowpoint in club history, CSG suffers a second relegation in three seasons, dropping back into Division 1, the third tier of the Grand-Duchy's league pyramid - a level at which the club had not played since the mid-1940s.
• 2019 / CS Grevenmacher reaches the final of Coupe FLF, Luxembourg's cup competition for clubs playing in the three lower divisions of the league pyramid, but suffers a 3-1 defeat at the hands of FC Yellow Boys Weiler-la-Tour.
• 2022 / Clinching the D1 title, CS Grevenmacher manages a return to Promotion d'Honneur.
• 2024 / Finishing in second-last place in Promotion d'Honneur, CSG drops back into Division 1 along with FC Lorentzweiler, Yellow Boys Weiler-la-Tour, and bottom club Blo-Weiss Medernach.

Note 1: Thanks to CS Grevenmacher's chairman Guy Fusenig and secretary Norry Stoltz for providing important parts of the information given above at my match visit in November 2022.

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-3 = non-matchday visit, July 1995 / pictures 4-24 = match visit, November 2022.

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

BELGIUM: ES Torgny (1969-2007) / FC Torgny-Rouvroy (2007-)

Rue Grande, Torgny (FC Torgny-Rouvroy, formerly ES Torgny)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg

27 XI 2022 / FC Torgny-Rouvroy - RSC Athusien Reserves 1-5 / Belgian Luxembourg, Reserves' League B

Timeline

• 1933 / Foundation of a first football club in the southernmost village of Belgium, Torgny, called Espérance FC. Upon joining Belgium's FA, the new club obtains matricule 1974. It is unclear where Espérance FC's ground was situated.
• 1934 / Espérance FC folds after an existence of barely one year.
• 1969 / After a 35-year gap, football returns to the village, as Entente Sportive (ES) Torgny sees the daylight. The club's first chairman is Marcel Bekaert. ES Torgny, its ground situated at Rue Grande, takes part in Belgian Luxembourg's Provincial League 3A for the first time in the 1970-71 season.
• 1983 / Finishing 10th in a field of 15 clubs, ES Torgny manages a finish outside the bottom five of the Provincial League 3 table for the first time.
• 2000 / Never having managed a better finish in P3 than a ninth place previously, out of the blue, ES Torgny clinches the title in Provincial League 3B with an advantage of just one point over RAC Saint-Mard.  
• 2001 / In what turns out to be the club's only-ever season in Provincial League 2, ES Torgny finishes in last place in P2A, thus dropping back into P3 straightaway. In the following seasons, the club returns to its old habits, steadily finding itself among the bottom teams in Provincial League 3.
• 2007 / Following a series of robberies of the clubhouse at Rue Grande - among those one committed by one of the club's board members, leading to a conviction at Arlon's Court of Justice -, ES Torgny succumbs to its debts and folds, ceasing all activities; matricule 7407 is erased from the Belgian FA's official lists in October 2007. Five months previously, a successor club is founded, taking on the name FC Torgny-Rouvroy and joining Belgium's Football Association under matricule 9509. 
• 2008 / Having an excellent first season, FC Torgny-Rouvroy finishes third in Provincial League 3A.
• 2013 / Seemingly reverting to the old ways of its predecessor ES Torgny, FC Torgny-Rouvroy finishes dead-last in P3A with just one point in the entire season, in which it suffers several comprehensive defeats, amongst which a 11-0 drubbing away at R Excelsior Fouches. The only point is picked up in a home game against SC Villers-devant-Orval (2-2). In the end, Torgny's goal difference is -105.
• 2015 / In a reversal of fortunes, after a respectable 5th place in 2014, FC Torgny-Rouvroy, guided by head coach Lindsay Faber, obtains the league title in P3A after a close-run race with RSC Rachecourt, which in the end falls just one point short. 
• 2016 / Like ES Torgny in 2001-02, FC Torgny-Rouvroy's stay in P2 lasts for one season only; with 13 points and a last place, the club returns to the familiar surroundings of Provincial League 3.
• 2019 / In the worst season in club history, FC Torgny-Rouvroy does not manage to pick up a single point in Provincial League 3B, suffering 11 defeats in which it concedes ten goals or more - with a 22-0 away defeat at ROC Meix-devant-Virton B being the uncontested lowpoint of the campaign. The club enters a team in Provincial League 3 for 2019-20, but it withdraws before the start of the season. In the following seasons, FC Torgny-Rouvroy took part in Belgian FA competitions with a reserves' team only.
• 2024 / After an absence of five years, FC Torgny-Rouvroy returns with a first team in Luxembourg's Provincial League 3.

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

BELGIUM: KRC Bambrugge (B) (2016-2021) / FC Mere (B) (2016-2021) / SK Aaigem (B) (2016-) / Erpe-Mere United (B) (2021-2022) / Erpe-Mere United (2022-)

Gemeentelijk Domein Steenberg, Bambrugge (Erpe-Mere United & B ground of SK Aaigem, formerly B ground of KRC Bambrugge & FC Mere)

Belgium, province: East Flanders

26 XI 2022 / Erpe-Mere United - KRC Harelbeke 1-1 / VFV Division 2A (= BE level 4)

Timeline

• 2013 / The municipality of Erpe-Mere applies for a subsidy in view of the council's desire to have a synthetic pitch put in place at Domein Steenberg, situated right beside the town hall. 
• 2016 / The subsidy request having been granted, works on the 3G get underway, with works commencing in the spring of 2016. Upon its completion, the ground was put to service for several local schools' P.E. lessons, while the youth academies of all of the municipality's football clubs - FC Mere, SK Aaigem, and KRC Bambrugge - started making use of the pitch ever more regularly. Lacking extensive facilities, the wooden shed of the local boy-scouts, situated at the ground's southern end, was used as clubhouse and changing room.
• 2018 / The boy-scouts' barrack is demolished to make way for a full-fledged two-tiered clubhouse, to be shared by the scouts and the local football clubs. The premises are inaugurated in December 2018.
• 2020 / KRC Bambrugge wins promotion to the national leagues for the first time in the club's history. Although their home ground at Lindekouter does not have the correct measurements for national league football, the club is given the customary dispensation of one year to solve the problem.
• 2021 / A merger is concluded between FC Mere and KRC Bambrugge, resulting in the foundation of Erpe-Mere United, in which Bambrugge's matricule 5343 is retained. Local authorities had ardently hoped that the remaining other club within the municipality's borders, KFC Olympic Burst, would join in with the merger project, but Burst's board pulled out of the talks earlier on. Meanwhile, even though no amendments were made at the pitch measurements at Lindekouter - and with KRC Bambrugge easily holding its own in VFV Division 3A, finishing sixth -, EM United is given an extra year's dispensation to play its first team football at this ground.
• 2022 / At their own request, Erpe-Mere's boy-scouts are moved away from Domein Steenberg, the clubhouse being too small for their ever-growing membership. With no better options available, a temporarily move is made to the clubhouse at Gemeentelijk Voetbalveld Oudendijk in Burst - for the previous 38 years home to KFC Olympic Burst, the club which declined a merger with FC Mere and KRC Bambrugge in 2021. In 2022, Olympic Burst folds, ceasing all activities; in order to solve its remaining debts, the club sells its matricule (3901) to K Olsa Brakel, allowing the national league side to integrate their B team in the league pyramid at Provincial League 2 level rather than in Provincial League 4. Meanwhile, no further dispensation is given to Erpe-Mere United as to the pitch measurements at Terrein Lindekouter. The logical decision is taken to move first team football to Gemeentelijk Domein Steenberg - not in VFV Division 3, but in Division 2 following EM United's unexpected promotion via the play-offs. Meanwhile, Erpe-Mere's town council has unfolded a project to build the club a new ground at FC Mere's former pitches at Sint-Bavoweg, but if and when these plans will come to fruition, remains to be seen. Terrein Lindekouter, due to be replaced with housing, remains in use for the time being, hosting part of EM United's youth academy.
• 2023 / Finishing dead-last in VFV Amateur Division 2A with just 9 points, Erpe-Mere United drops back into D3 along with KVK Westhoek.

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