Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: KFC Rapide Wezemaal

Terrein Vleugtweg, Wezemaal (KFC Rapide Wezemaal)

Belgium, province: Flemish Brabant = Vlaams Brabant

4 II 2024 / KFC Rapide Wezemaal - K Stormvogels Haasrode 1-2 / Brabant, VFV Provincial League 2B (= BE level 7)

Timeline

1932 / Foundation of a football club which takes on the name FC Rapide Wezemaal, with Jef Smets being the new club’s first chairman. Disdaining to join the official Belgian FA, the club applies for membership of the so-called Vlaamsche Voetbalbond (VVB). Most probably, the club started its life on a pitch situated at Langestraat.
1943 / After eleven years in the VVB, FC Rapide Wezemaal joins the official Belgian Football Association, acquiring registration number 3908 upon being accepted as a member; possibly also in 1943, the club moved from Terrein Langestraat to Terrein Abdijlaan. Earlier that same year, another club from Wezemaal, FC Sparta Wezemaal, also joined the Belgian FA (registration number 3870). Both clubs are placed in Brabant’s Provincial League 3G.
1946 / After three seasons in P3, in which the club always finished below their village rivals Rapide, FC Sparta Wezemaal withdraws from first team football – and eventually this club vanishes without leaving a trace, as registration number 3870 is erased from the Belgian FA’s official membership list in 1947.
1953 / Under the aegis of player/coach Rik Geertsen, FC Rapide Wezemaal clinches the title in Brabant’s Provincial League 3G, thereby winning promotion to Provincial League 2.
1963 / After ten consecutive seasons in Provincial League 2, FC Rapide Wezemaal, coached at the time by Marcel Pelgrims, drops back into P3 following a fourteenth place in the final table of P2B.
1967 / Coached by Raoul Verhagen, FC Rapide Wezemaal conquers the title in P3D, thus managing a return to Brabant’s Provincial League 2.
1975 / Having suffered relegation from Provincial League 2 with coach Berreke van Camelbeek the previous year, FC Rapide Wezemaal now wins the P3D title under his successor Willy Verhaegen, thus returning to P2 at the first instance.
1981 / Finishing second-last in P2B, FC Rapide Wezemaal, coached by Oscar Deconinck, drops back into P3 after six seasons.
1983 / At the instigation of Petra, the daughter of Rapide’s chairman Fernand Mertens, a ladies’ team is formed at KFC Rapide Wezemaal. In the following years, this women’s team wins promotion to the national divisions (1988) and the top flight of the ladies’ football pyramid (1991), eventually conquering four consecutive league titles (2004-07) and six Belgian cups (1993, 1997, 2001, 2003-04, 2007).
1986 / After decades of playing at Terrein Abdijlaan, FC Rapide Wezemaal moves into the newly laid-out Terrein Vleugtweg. Also in 1986, the club acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming KFC Rapide Wezemaal.
1987 / Coached by Mathieu Noben, KFC Rapide Wezemaal finishes in last place in P3D, thus dropping back into Provincial League 4, the bottom division of Brabant’s provincial divisions, for the first time in club history.
1988 / Under the aegis of new coach Hans Celis, KFC Rapide Wezemaal conquers the title in Brabant’s Provincial League 4G, thereby finding its way back to P3 immediately.
1990 / Still coached by Hans Celis, KFC Rapide Wezemaal accedes to Provincial League 2 after winning the title in Provincial League 3D.
1993 / Going from strength to strength with trainer Hans Celis, KFC Rapide Wezemaal wins the title in Provincial League 2B, thereby acceding to Brabant’s Provincial League 1 for the first time in club history.
1994 / Finishing in a respectable fifth place in its first season in Brabant’s Provincial League 1, KFC Rapide Wezemaal, still coached by Hans Celis, qualifies for the play-offs, in which the club manages an unprecedented promotion to National Division 4. To allow more comfort to their spectators, the club has a covered grandstand built at the northern side of the main pitch at Terrein Vleugtweg.
1995 / In its first season in National Division 4, KFC Rapide Wezemaal holds its own well, finishing in ninth place in Division 4C.
1996 / Finishing in thirteenth place in National Division 4B, KFC Rapide Wezemaal narrowly staves off direct relegation – a fate which befalls KSK Heist, K Wijnegem VC, and KFC Duffel. In the relegation play-offs, KFC Rapide Wezemaal is defeated by KFC Izegem in R1 (2-1 A.E.T.), meaning that Izegem saves its skin – and Wezemaal has to play a further set of play-offs, first defeating R Entente RC Amay (1-2) before being wiped out in the final by KFC Meulebeke (1-4). Due to an extra place in National Division 4 being available, the club plays a lucky loser final against Hainaut’s Provincial League 1 club SC Lambusart-Fleurus. The encounter finishes 2-2 A.E.T., with SC Lambusart-Fleurus winning the penalty shoot-out (4-5). As such, the Hainaut club wins promotion to National Division 4, while KFC Rapide Wezemaal drops back into Brabant’s Provincial League 1 after two seasons of national league football.
2003 / Coached by Ivan Emmerecht, KFC Rapide Wezemaal finishes in last place in Brabant’s Provincial League 1, thereby dropping back into P2.
2006 / Coached by Vic Crabbé, KFC Rapide Wezemaal finishes in last place in Brabant’s Provincial League 2B, suffering relegation to Provincial League 3 along with Sparta Walshoutem.
2007 / Having just won its sixth Belgian cup, KFC Rapide Wezemaal’s ladies’ team breaks away from its mother club, becoming FC Ladies (FCL) Rapide Wezemaal and acquiring membership of Belgium’s FA independently with registration number 9505.
2008 / FCL Rapide Wezemaal allows itself to be absorbed by K Sint-Truidense VV, with ladies’ football moving away to Sint-Truiden’s stadium, Stayen.
2012 / Coached by Pascal Van den Bergh, KFC Rapide Wezemaal misses out on the P3D title on the last day of the season, drawing its last match against KVC Kessel-Lo 2000 (1-1), thus being pipped at the post by rivals SC Aarschot, which defeats KVC Haacht (2-0), thereby finishing 1 point ahead of Rapide. Having to try to win promotion via the backdoor of the play-offs, KFC Rapide Wezemaal finishes top of a group of six, thereby acceding to P2 after all, along with SK Gooik and FC Merchtem 2000 at the expense of FC Melsbroek, Sparta Walshoutem, and RRC Etterbeek.
2020 / Coached by Nico Pairoux, and later Kris Goris, KFC Rapide Wezemaal finds itself in fourteenth place in P2A in March 2020, when all football is suspended due to the COVID lockdown. On the basis of 24 of 30 matches, the club is retrograded to Provincial League 3 along with VC Bekkevoort and K Rode Duivels Zoutleeuw.
2022 / Without suffering a single defeat all season, KFC Rapide Wezemaal wins the title in P3B, 7 points ahead of runners-up Standaard Meerbeek. As such, coach Eddy Van Craen and his men accede to Provincial League 2.