Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: KVV Zelzate (2024-)

Sunday, 11 February 2024

BELGIUM: KVV Zelzate (2024-)

Sportcomplex Armand Seghers, Zelzate (KVV Zelzate)

Belgium, province: East Flanders = Oost-Vlaanderen

11 II 2024 / KVV Zelzate - KSC Dikkelvenne 4-7 / VFV Amateur Division 2A (= BE level 4)

Timeline

1922 / Foundation of a first football club in the town of Zelzate, which is given the name Katholieke Vlaamsche Voetbalvereeniging (KVV) Zelzate. From the outset, the club's ground is situated at Patronagestraat.
± 1933 / Foundation of Voetbalclub (VC) Blue Boys Zelzate. The club's first ground is situated at the northern edges of the town, alongside a street called Oude Westtragel nowadays.
1937 / KVV Zelzate changes its name to become Sint-Laurens Voetbalclub (SLV) Zelzate.
1944 / Having spent the first two decades of its existence in two different Roman-Catholic football associations, SLV Zelzate joins the official Belgian Football Association (KBVB), obtaining registration number 4165 upon being accepted as new member club.
1945 / Following the example of its Roman-Catholic town rivals SLV Zelzate, the bourgeois VC Blue Boys also applies for membership, being admitted under registration number 4386. Meanwhile, the club plays its football on a new pitch at Boerenstraat, situated not that far from Oude Westtragel.
1949 / SLV Zelzate's goalkeeper, Armand "Mance" Seghers, leaves the club, signing a contract with top flight club ARA La Gantoise. Seghers, who stayed with this club until hanging up his boots in 1966, also won 11 caps for the Belgian national side - with his debut, an away match against France in the Stade Olympique de Colombes in 1952, earning him the nickname "The Hero of Colombes" (De Held van Colombes) - as Belgium won the match 0-1, Seghers, wearing his familiar bonnet, denied the French attackers time after time. Armand Seghers passed away in 2005 at the age of 78.
1957 / Keen to shed its liberal ("blue") and bourgeois image, VC Blue Boys Zelzate's board takes the decision to change the club's name, replacing it with the painstakingly simple FC Zelzate.
1964 / Abandoning its pitch at Boerenstraat, FC Zelzate moves to a newly laid-out ground at Verbroederingslaan, again no further than a stone's throw away from the club's old pitch.
1995 / Earning the royal epithet, SLV Zelzate takes on the name Koninklijke Sint-Laurens Voetbalvereniging (KSLV) Zelzate.
2007 / FC Zelzate obtains the royal epithet, thus changing its name to become Koninklijke Football Club (KFC) Zelzate.
2008 / A merger is concluded between KSLV Zelzate and KFC Zelzate, resulting in the foundation of Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging (KVV) Zelzate, which retains KSLV's matricule 4165. Henceforth, first team football is played at KSLV Zelzate's ground at Patronagestraat, while the merger club's youth academy settles at KFC Zelzate's pitches at Verbroederingslaan. For some time, the club also disposes of a third ground at Zeestraat, but this is given up some time later to be taken over by recreational football clubs.
2018 / Having been one of the division's top teams in the past seasons, KVV Zelzate now clinches the Provincial League 1 title. As such, the club accedes to VFV Amateur Division 3, the fifth and lowest tier of Belgium's national league pyramid. It is the first time ever a club from Zelzate is represented at the national level.
2022 / In the summer of 2022, after many years of fruitless talks, the go-ahead sign is given to start the building works on a new ground for the club at Broeder Leopoldstraat, which is given the provisional name Site Zelzate-Zuid.
2024 / On January 7th, 2024, KVV Zelzate - meanwhile playing in VFV Amateur Division 2, the fourth tier of Belgium's national league pyramid - plays its last home match at Terrein Patronagestraat. The grounds at Patronagestraat and Verbroederingslaan are abandoned that month, with the club moving to the newly built Armand Seghers Sportcomplex in Zelzate-Zuid. The first home match at the new ground is a spectacular 4-7 home defeat at the hands of KSC Dikkelvenne.