Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: RFC Sart-lez-Spa (B) (1983-2016) / RFC Sart-lez-Spa (2016-)

Sunday 10 December 2023

BELGIUM: RFC Sart-lez-Spa (B) (1983-2016) / RFC Sart-lez-Spa (2016-)

Rue de l'Ermitage terrain 2, Sart-lez-Spa (RFC Sart-lez-Spa main pitch, formerly B pitch of aforementioned club)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

10 XII 2023 / RFC Sart-lez-Spa - RFC Hannutois 1-4 / Liège, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 6)

Timeline

1952 / Foundation of a football club in Sart-lez-Spa, which takes on the name FC Sart-lez-Spa (colloquially referred to simply as FC Sart). The club joins Belgium’s Football Association under registration number 5579 and settles at a ground situated at Rue de l’Ermitage, a stone’s throw to the east of the current ground.
1983 / Moving away from its original pitch, FC Sart-lez-Spa settles at a newly laid-out ground at the western end of Rue de l’Ermitage, consisting of three pitches.
2002 / Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, FC Sart-lez-Spa acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Football Club (RFC) Sart-lez-Spa.
± 2007 / Recreational club FC Nivezé is incorporated into RFC Sart-lez-Spa, with Nivezé Terrain Pré Jonas remaining in use for lower team football.
2012 / With Provincial League 2 being the highest level attained in the first sixty years of club history, RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in Liège’s Provincial League 4D in the 2011-12 season, 6 points behind champions RUS 1947 Emmels. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, RFC Sart successively edges past FC Büllingen (2-0), R Dolhain FC (1-2), and FC Herstal B (1-3) only to be defeated in the semi-finals by R Juprelle Union (2-0) – resulting in the club having to settle for another season in the bottom division of Liège’s provincial league pyramid.
2013 / RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in Provincial League 4D for the second time running, separated from champions FC Büllingen by a 4-point gap. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, RFC Sart successively sees off R Excelsior FC Lambermontois (4-1), RFC de la Roer (1-3), and R Mons FC (4-0), only to suffer defeat in the semi-final against R Seraing Athlétique FC (2-0); due to extra promotion places being available, though, the club earns itself an additional ticket to Provincial League 3.
2014 / In an excellent first season in Provincial League 3D, FC Sart-lez-Spa finishes in third place behind FC Ster-Franchorchamps and RUS 1947 Emmels. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, the club defeats RUA Plombières (1-1 and penalty shoot-out) and RUS 1947 Emmels (1-3) to accede to Provincial League 2 – a second promotion in a row. In the following seasons, the club manages to hold its own admirably well in P2C.
2016 / A synthetic pitch is put in place on the main pitch at Rue de l’Ermitage in the summer of 2016. First team football, however, is moved to pitch 2, on the southern side of the clubhouse, with a small covered stand being added to the set-up of that pitch shortly afterwards.
2020 / Having finished in third place in P2C the previous season – in which no promotion play-offs were held – RFC Sart-lez-Spa were runners-up in that same division, 5 points behind Etoile Elsautoise, in March 2020, when the season was cut short due to the COVID lockdown.
2022 / In the first full season after the COVID lockdown, RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in P2C, 7 points behind champions KFC Eupen 1963. The promotion play-offs end in disillusion, as the club is eliminated in R1 by KFC Olympia Recht (1-1, penalty shoot-out: 3-4).
2023 / Finishing in fourth place in P2C, RFC Sart-lez-Spa qualifies for the promotion play-offs, beating KFC Weywertz (1-1 and penalty shoot-out) and KFC Rocherath (4-0) in the first two rounds, thus qualifying for the final group stage, with three clubs vying for two promotion spots. Finishing in second place, behind RFC Trooz, but ahead of R Union Momalloise, RFC Sart-lez-Spa accedes to Liège’s Provincial League 1 for the first time in the club’s existence.