Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: K Maaseik FC (1994-2005) / K Eendracht Neeroeteren-Maaseik (B) (2005-2006) / K Real Neeroeteren-Maaseik (B) (2006-2009) / SL Wurfeld (2009-2014) / SLW Maaseik (2014-)

Stedelijk Sportstadion, Maaseik (SLW Maaseik, formerly K Maaseik FC / B ground of K Eendracht Neeroeteren-Maaseik & K Real Neeroeteren-Maaseik / SL Wurfeld)

Belgium, province: Limburg

18 II 2023 / SLW Maaseik - K Opitter FC 3-0 / Limburg, Provincial League 3B (= BE level 8)

Timeline

1925 / Foundation of a football club in Maaseik, which is called Maaseycker FC. The club joins the Belgian Football Association. Maaseycker FC is not the town's first football club; prior to World War I, there was an ephemeral club called Maaseik Vooruit. After the war, recreational football was played with an inflated cow bladder - hence the pejorative club name FC Koeblaas, until Maaseycker FC finally saw the daylight. It is unclear if Maaseycker FC started its life at the ground along the Bosbeek river - or if the move was made to that pitch later on in club history.
1926 / Maaseycker FC first takes part in Limburg's regional divisions. Upon the introduction of the matricule register at Belgium's FA in December 1926, Maaseycker FC obtains matricule 941.
1933 / Winning the title in Limburg's Regional League 2A, Maaseycker FC earns itself a promotion to Provincial League 2, the highest regional level in Limburg's football pyramid below the three Belgian national divisions at the time. The club holds out in P2 for three seasons before suffering relegation back into Regional League 2 in 1936.
1938 / After a new title win in Regional League 2A, Maaseycker FC accedes to Provincial League 2 for a second time.
1943 / Maaseycker FC wins access to the national leagues for the first time, winning the title in Provincial League 2 and thus opening the door to Promotion, the third and lowest national division at the time. In its first season, the club finishes in a respectable sixth place in Promotion D.
1945 / Restart of the regular league system after a year of just playing regional football in a provisionary system in the 1944-45 season which was dominated by the end of German occupation of Belgium. In the first regular season after the war, Maaseycker FC suffers relegation from Promotion, thus ending up in Limburg's Provincial League 2 in 1946.
1949 / After three years in P2, Maaseycker FC drops back into Regional League 2, eleven years after having played at that lowly level for the last time.
1952 / In a reorganisation of Belgium's football pyramid, involving - amongst other changes - the introduction of a Provincial League 1 in Limburg, Maaseycker FC is placed in Provincial League 2 without having won promotion on the pitch. The club isn't going through a particularly successful spell, though, with relegation to Provincial League 3 following in 1954.
1957 / Winning the title in Provincial League 3B, Maaseycker FC manages a return to P2. That same year, the club obtains the royal epithet - and modernising the orthography of its name in the process, takes on the new name Koninklijke Maaseik Football Club (K Maaseik FC or simply KMFC).
1958 / Winning its second title in a row, K Maaseik FC qualifies for Provincial League 1.
1960 / After two seasons in P1, K Maaseik FC is relegated back into Provincial League 2. In the following 18 seasons, the club alternates spells in P2 and P3.
1970 / K Maaseik FC obtains the title in Provincial League 3E, but a complaint is filed by VV HO Molenbeersel to the effect that Maaseik won a victory over their first team by bribing the referee. The case being brought before justice, K Maaseik is declared guilty and excluded from regular league football for one season. The club restarts in Provincial League 3 in the 1971-72 season.
1978 / Obtaining the title in Provincial League 2B, K Maaseik FC returns to Provincial League 1 after a 18-year absence.
1983 / Following five seasons in Limburg's top provincial league, KMFC drops back into P2.
1984 / Winning the title in P2B, K Maaseik FC manages an immediate return to P1.
1987 / KMFC drops out of P1 yet again. In the following seven seasons, the club alternates spells in P2 and P3.
1994 / Winning the title in P2C, K Maaseik FC accedes to Provincial League 1 again. In September of that year, the club abandons its old ground along the Bosbeek river to settle down at the newly built Stedelijk Sportstadion in Maaseik's town-centre.
1997 / Finishing fourth in P1, KMFC qualifies for the interprovincial promotion play-offs. After defeating Hainaut's RRC Estaimpuis in the semis (0-3 A.E.T.), the club loses the final against KRC Waregem (1-0). Due to the bankruptcy of SC Pecq (subsequently absorbed into RUS Tournaisienne), an extra promotion place for National Division 4 is available; winning the lucky loser final against R Jeunesse Arlonaise emphatically (5-1), K Maaseik FC clinches that last spot - until a complaint is filed by the club from Belgian Luxembourg's capital to the effect that, now that a Walloon club ceded its place, it must be replaced by another club from Wallonia. In the end, the Belgian FA accepts the request - however, giving the extra promotion place not to R Jeunesse Arlonaise, but to Hainaut's RLC Hornu (according to FA authorities, given that SC Pecq was a club from Hainaut, this province deserved a replacement team in the national divisions). Thus, Maaseik just misses out on national league football.
2001 / Winning the title in Provincial League 1, K Maaseik FC returns to the national leagues after a 55-year absence.
2002 / Finishing 15th in National Division 4C, KMFC is relegated from the national leagues along with KSK Bree and K Wezel Sport FC.
2003 / Suffering a second relegation in a row, K Maaseik FC suddenly finds itself in Provincial League 2.
2004 / KMFC finishes 14th in Provincial League 2C. Due to grave financial difficulties, caused by the investments in the new stadium and the costs involved in reaching the national divisions in the previous years, the club withdraws from first team football.
2005 / Having soldiered on for one more season, K Maaseik FC finally folds, ceasing all activities. The club's Stedelijk Sportstadion is taken over by K Neeroeteren FC (matricule 2426), which changes its name to become K Eendracht Neeroeteren-Maaseik. First team football is played at Neeroeteren's Stadion De Borg, while the ground in Maaseik is used for lower team football and training sessions.
2006 / K Eendracht Neeroeteren-Maaseik takes on the new name K Real Neeroeteren-Maaseik.
2009 / Provincial League 4 side Sint-Laurentius (SL) Wurfeld (matricule 6888), a club from a hamlet situated on the western outskirts of Maaseik proper, files a complaint with Maaseik's town council, voicing its dissatisfaction at the state of its pitches at its Kasteelterrein in Wurfeld proper - and demanding a solution. Finally, the decision is taken to allow the club to settle at Maaseik's Stedelijk Sportstadion, which means that K Real Neeroeteren-Maaseik has to vacate the premises forthwith. Wurfeld's Kasteelterrein is abandoned - and later taken over by Rugbyclub Maasland.
2014 / Having played at Stedelijk Sportstadion for five seasons, SL Wurfeld changes its name to become Sint-Laurentius Wurfeld (SLW) Maaseik.
2015 / One year after SL Wurfeld being renamed SLW Maaseik, K Real Neeroeteren-Maaseik drops the reference to Maaseik from its name, reinstating its old name K Neeroeteren FC.
2017 / After a ten-year spell in Provincial League 4, SLW Maaseik, having finished third in P4D in the 2016-17 season, wins the promotion play-offs to accede to Provincial League 3.