Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: AFC Tubize (B) (± 1992-2021) / R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte (C) (2021-2022) / R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte (B) (2022-)

Sunday, 12 February 2023

BELGIUM: AFC Tubize (B) (± 1992-2021) / R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte (C) (2021-2022) / R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte (B) (2022-)

Terrain du Chalet, Tubize = Tubeke (B ground of R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte, formerly B ground of AFC Tubize & C ground of R Union Tubize-Braine)

Belgium, province: Walloon Brabant

12 II 2023 / R Union Tubize-Braine-le-Comte B - Sporting Bruxelles 4-2 / Brabant, ACFF Provincial League 1 (= BE level 6)

Timeline

1990 / A merger is concluded between the two football clubs in Tubize, FC Tubize (matricule 5632) and Amis Réunis (AR) Tubize (matricule 8424), resulting in the foundation of Association Football Clubs (AFC) Tubize, retaining FC Tubize's matricule 5632. The new club, which starts its life in Brabant's Provincial League 2, plays its first team football at FC Tubize's Stade Leburton, while AR's ground at Chaussée d'Hondzocht is retained for lower team football and training sessions for the time being.
± 1992 / In 1991 or 1992, a second pitch is put in place at FC Tubize's training ground, Terrain du Chalet, situated on a hillside overlooking Stade Leburton. This second training pitch, laid out on the southern side of the clubhouse, results in the pitch at Chaussée d'Hondzocht becoming redundant - as a result, the club abandons AR Tubize's former ground, which is used for some more time by recreational teams until being given up once and for all.
2021 / A merger is concluded between AFC Tubize and R Stade Brainois (matricule 343) from nearby Braine-le-Comte (or 's-Gravenbrakel in Dutch), just across the border in the Province of Hainaut. The new merger club, Royale Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte (universally referred to as Royale Union Tubize-Braine or simply RUTB), sticks with AFC Tubize's matricule 5632. Henceforth, first team football is played at Tubize's Stade Leburton. With RUTB's A squad beginning its life at ACFF Amateur Division 2 level, a second team is created, which is placed in ACFF Brabant's Provincial League 1 - one obligatory step down from the level at which junior merger partner Stade Brainois ended its existence as an independent club (viz. Amateur Division 3). This second team settles at Braine's Stade au Sans Fond - an odd situation, given that the ground is situated in Hainaut rather than in Walloon Brabant.
2022 / As Royale Union Tubize-Braine's request at Braine-le-Comte's town council to allow extensive renovation works to be carried out at Stade au Sans Fond is brusquely turned down, the club takes the far-reaching decision to abandon the historic ground and move the home matches of its B team, which comfortably held its own in its first season in ACFF Brabant's P1, to Terrain du Chalet in Tubize. The matches take place on the pitch laid out in 1991 or 1992; the older pitch on the northern side of the old 'chalet' (cp. picture 17 below) is only used for training purposes and youth matches. Apart from the two grounds in Tubize, the merger club also retains Stade Brainois' youth academy ground, Stade du Poseur.
2024 / Finishing in second-last place in Brabant ACFF's Provincial League 1, R Union Tubize Braine-le-Comte B drops back into Provincial League 2 along with bottom club RFC Grez-Doiceau.