Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: SC Néchin

Stade Communal - Avenue des Sports, Néchin (SC Néchin)

Belgium, province: Hainaut = Henegouwen

27 VIII 2023 / SC Néchin - R Soignies Sports 1-2 / Hainaut, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 6)

Timeline

1930 / Foundation of a first football club in Néchin, Union Néchinoise Sportive, which applies for membership of the Belgian Football Association, being accepted under registration number 1674. The club’s ground is situated at Rue des Combattants, on the eastern outskirts of the village.
1931 / Union Néchinoise takes part in regular league football for the first time, being placed in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3A.
1934 / Foundation of a second football club in Néchin, Daring Club Néchinois. Its membership application, however, is turned down by Belgium’s FA, which refuses to admit a second club from Néchin. For that reason, the club changes its name to become Daring Club Bailleulois, taking its name from the neighbouring village of Bailleul. Thereupon, the club is given registration number 2206. Daring Club’s ground is situated at the back of a local restaurant, Brasserie du Châtelet.
1935 / Daring Club Bailleulois takes part in regular league football for the first time, being placed in Hainaut’s Provincial League 4A, which consists of just 5 teams – other than Daring, there are Sirault Sports, RC Molenbaix, and RC Pecquois.
1936 / In a league season consisting of just 4 (!) matches, all of which are won, DC Bailleulois wins the title in Provincial League 4A, thus winning promotion to P3 – along with all four other clubs, as Hainaut’s P4 is abolished – only to be re-established 34 years later. In P3A, DC Bailleulois meets derby rivals Union Néchinoise Sportive for the first time on a competitive level.
1939 / Clinching the title in Provincial League 3A, one point ahead of SC Templeuvois – and completely eclipsing Union Néchin, which spent all of its 8 years in P3 in the bottom half of the table –, DC Bailleulois wins promotion to Provincial League 2. After the 1938-39 season, though, with Belgium’s government mobilising its armed forces following Germany’s invasion of Poland, regular league football is discontinued in Hainaut, not to be taken up again for the duration of World War II and German occupation of Belgium.
1941 / With Union Néchinoise Sportive probably having folded some time between 1939 and 1941, Daring Club Bailleulois officially changes its name to become Daring Club Néchin.
1945 / Following the end of World War II, the decision is taken to form a new club in Néchin, Olympic Club Néchinois, which officially goes down in the Belgian FA’s books as a merger between Union Néchinoise Sportive and Daring Club Néchin. Upon being accepted as new member club, OC Néchinois acquires registration number 4268. The numbers of the two pre-war clubs are erased from the official lists. OC Néchinois’ ground is the pitch formerly used by Union at Rue des Combattants.
1946 / As regular league football is resumed after 7 years of inactivity, OC Néchinois is placed in Hainaut’s Provincial League 2A – on the back of DC Bailleulois’ promotion to that level in the last pre-war season, in 1939.
1948 / Finishing second-last in P2A, OC Néchinois descends into Provincial League 3 along with bottom club SC Antoing.
1949 / Olympic Néchinois wins the title in Provincial League 3A, but in the ensuing round of play-offs against the winners of the 3 others P3 divisions (SC Eugies, JS Saint-Lazare Mons, and UA Manage), only JS Saint-Lazare Mons earns promotion to Provincial League 2.
1950 / Finishing in joint-first place in P3A along with US Leers, OC Néchinois wins the ensuing tie-break match, thus managing a return to P2 after 2 years.
1957 / By the start of the 1957-58 season, OC Néchinois finds itself in Provincial League 3A; it is unclear in which season the club suffered relegation to that level.
1959 / Not having entered a team in Hainaut’s provincial divisions in the 1958-59 season, Olympic Club Néchinois folds, ceasing all activities.
1962 / Three years after the demise of OC Néchinois, a new football club is founded in Néchin – Sporting Club (SC) Néchin, which applies for membership of Belgium’s FA, being admitted under registration number 6616. Instead of settling at OC Néchinois’ old ground at Rue des Combattants, SC Néchin finds itself a meadow on the northern outskirts of the village – at modern-day Avenue des Sports – where a pitch is laid out. The club’s first chairman is Jean Arlon.
1963 / SC Néchin starts its life as a regular league club with a first team in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3A.
1970 / Having spent its first 7 seasons in Provincial League 3, SC Néchin descends into the newly created Provincial League 4 due to the club having finished in the bottom half of the P3A table in the 1969-70 season, but the club manages an immediate return to P3 in 1971. In the following 3 decades, SC Néchin alternates spells in P3 (1971-74, 1981-89, 1997-2000) and P4 (1974-81, 1984-97, 2000-02), with titles in P4A in 1981 and 2002.
2004 / Winning the title in Provincial League 3A, 6 points ahead of RAS Pays Blanc Antoinien, SC Néchin accedes to Provincial League 2 for the first time in club history.
2008 / Having topped the P2A table for most of the season, SC Néchin eventually finished 3rd behind champions RFCE Enghien Sports and runners-up RAS Lessines-Ollignies, which both win promotion to P1. As it turns out, SC Néchin’s board, pressed down by a debt of some 30,000 euros, wanted to avoid a promotion to the highest provincial level, sending away their first team players towards the end of the season and playing its last matches with youth players.
2009 / Logically, given the way the 2007-08 season ended, SC Néchin is unable to hold its own in P2A, finishing dead-last and suffering relegation to P3 along with AS Obigies.
2010 / Finishing second-last in P3A, SC Néchin descends into P4 along with bottom club RSC Templeuvois B. It is the club’s second relegation in a row.
2011 / Winning its last match away at FC Esplechin, SC Néchin clinches the title in Provincial League 4A, finishing 1 point ahead of OC Warcoing B. As such, the club returns to P3 after one year.
2012 / Unable to hold its own in P3A for the second time in 3 seasons, SC Néchin descends into the bottom division of Hainaut’s regional divisions along with Bury Foot-Club.
2019 / Finishing 3rd in P4A behind RFC Luingnois and AC Estaimbourg B, SC Néchin qualifies for the promotion play-offs. Reaching the final, the club defeats AS Pommerœul-Ville (0-3), thus returning to P3 after 7 seasons.
2022 / Coached by Giovanni Huin, SC Néchin finishes in 3rd place in P3A behind RAS Pays Blanc Antoinien B and La Squadra Mouscron. In the ensuing promotion play-offs, the club reaches the final, in which it defeats CS Pays Vert Ostiches-Ath B with the winning goal (2-1) being scored in the last minute. Thus, the club wins promotion to P2.
2023 / Still coached by Giovanni Huin, SC Néchin wins the title in P2A, 4 points ahead of RUS Herseautoise and FC Enghiennois, thus winning its second promotion in a row – and finding itself in Hainaut’s Provincial League 1 for the first time in club history.