BELGIUM: R Oupeye FC

Stade du Fair-Play, Oupeye (R Oupeye FC)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

23 VII 2023 / R Oupeye FC - MCS Sport Liège 0-2 / Pre-season friendly

Timeline

• 1927 / Foundation of Oupeye Football Club, which, upon joining Belgium’s Football Association, obtains matricule 1000. First club chairman is co-founder Oscar Landrain. The club lays out a pitch on a meadow which it rents from two local farmers at Rue du Pré de la Haye.
• 1930 / Oupeye FC registers its first success, winning the title in Liège’s Provincial League 2, ahead of CS Visétois. It is unclear how long the club managed to stay up in its first stay in Provincial League 1.
• 1952 / At the instigation of chairman François Jehaes, Oupeye FC purchases the plot of land on which its sole pitch is situated – a plot which the club had hitherto paid an annual rent for.
• 1959 / Winning the title in Provincial League 2 as well as the ensuing promotion play-offs, Oupeye FC accedes to Provincial League 1 without suffering a single defeat in the entire season.
• 1960 / Coming close to the title in Provincial League 1, Oupeye FC narrowly misses out on promotion to national league football. The club must have dropped back into P2 at some point in the following years, but it is unclear when exactly. In the remainder of its existence, the club never returned to this level.
• 1977 / Although another source states the club acquired the royal epithet in 1952, the more reliable material confirms Oupeye FC became a Société Royale in 1977, thus becoming Royal Oupeye Football Club.
• 1981 / Clinching the title in Provincial League 3, R Oupeye FC, coached by Lambert Defraigne, accedes to Provincial League 2.
• 1985 / Under the guidance of trainer Robert Skivée, R Oupeye FC wins the P3 title once more, thus finding its way back to Provincial League 2.
• 2015 / Finishing second-last in Liège’s Provincial League 2B, R Oupeye FC descends into P3.
• 2016 / Abandoning its sole pitch at Rue du Pré de la Haye, R Oupeye FC moves into its new ground, the Stade du Fair-Play at Rue Alfred De Taeye, where it disposes of two pitches. The premises at Rue du Pré de la Haye are knocked down to make way for housing.
• 2019 / Clinching the title in Provincial League 3B with an advantage of 11 points over closest rivals RSC Tilffois, R Oupeye FC manages a return to P2. Moreover, that same season, the club wins the Provincial Cup for P3 and P4 teams, seeing off RES Templiers-Nandrin in the final played at CREF in Blégny (4-1).
• 2023 / With just 8 points from 28 matches, and without a single win, R Oupeye FC drops out of P2B, thus descending into Provincial League 3 after 4 years.
• 2024 / Finishing in third place in Liège's Provincial League 3B, R Oupeye FC qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by RCS Sart-Tilman (1-2).

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