Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: KFC Anadol

Sunday 5 May 2024

BELGIUM: KFC Anadol

Terrein Valentinusstraat West, Heusden-Zolder Lindeman (KFC Anadol)

Belgium, province: Limburg

5 V 2024 / KFC Anadol - KRC Peer 1-3 / Belgian Limburg, Provincial League 2 - promotion play-off QF (= BE level 7)

Timeline

1968 / Foundation of FC Anadol, a recreative football club of Turkish migrant workers in Heusden-Zolder. The club’s pitch is situated next to – or more specifically immediately to the north of – the Selimiye Camii Mosque, a house of prayer at Valentinusstraat in the hamlet Lindeman, built for the benefit of the workers by the board of the mining company which employed them.
1973 / After five years of playing recreative football, FC Anadol joins the official Belgian Football Association, obtaining registration number 8026 upon being accepted as new member club.
1974 / FC Anadol starts its life as a regular first team in Limburg’s Provincial League 4A.
± 1979 / A new pitch is laid out in the woods on the other, southern, side of the mosque at Valentinusstraat, with FC Anadol’s first team football moving to this pitch. The old pitch is retained for lower team football and training sessions.
1985 / Champions in Provincial League 4D, FC Anadol accedes to Limburg’s Provincial League 3 for the first time in club history.
1993 / In the best season for the club before the turn of the century, FC Anadol finishes in second place in P3D.
2005 / Having given up its pitch north of the mosque, KFC Anadol is given the luxury of an extra training pitch on the other side of Valentinusstraat, where the ground of the former AS Lindeman is situated (with AS Lindeman having been absorbed into K Helzold FC in 1998). Initially making use just of AS Lindeman’s B pitch – with the A pitch being in use by Berkenbos VV – the club probably took over the entire Lindeman ground for their training sessions in 2006.
2010 / Having played in Provincial League 3 for 25 consecutive years, FC Anadol now finishes in last place in P3A, thus dropping back into Provincial League 4 along with second-last VK Gestel.
2015 / After several meagre seasons in the bottom half of the table in Provincial League 4, FC Anadol now clinches the title in P4A, 5 points ahead of FC Halveweg Zonhoven. As such, the club manages a return to Provincial League 3 after five years.
2016 / Going from strength to strength, FC Anadol wins the title in P3A in its first season back at this level, with a wholesome 10 point advantage over closest rivals – and sister club – Turkse FC from nearby Beringen. As a result, FC Anadol finds itself in Provincial League 2 for the first time in club history.
2018 / Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, FC Anadol acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Koninklijke Football Club (KFC) Anadol.
2019 / After narrowly saving its skin in Provincial League 2 in the previous two seasons, KFC Anadol now cannot avoid the drop, finishing bottom of the P2A table and descending into P3 along with FC Maasland Noordoost.
2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short due to the COVID lockdown in March 2020, KFC Anadol are declared champions in P3B, having finished 3 points ahead of closest followers K Hechtel FC with 25 of 30 matches played. As such, the club is placed in Provincial League 2 for the new season.
± 2021 / KFC Anadol is given permission to start using Terrein Sint-Annastraat, ground of the former K Vrijheid Zolder, for some of its training sessions.
2022 / In the best season in club history, KFC Anadol finishes in fourth place in P2A, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by K HIH Hoepertingen (1-0). For the 2022-23 season, the squad of KFC Anadol is reinforced by 46-year-old Hakan Bayraktar, former player of KFC Lommel SK, Fenerbahçe SK, and a long string of other Turkish clubs – as well as a one-time Turkish international player.
2024 / Having narrowly staved off relegation the previous year, KFC Anadol now equals its result of the 2021-22 season, finishing in fourth place in P2B and qualifying for the promotion play-offs – in which, yet again, the club stumbles over the first hurdle, being eliminated in R1 by KRC Peer (1-3).