BELGIUM: FC Anadol (1968-±1979) / FC Anadol (B) (±1979-2005)

Terrein Valentinusstraat Noord, Heusden-Zolder Lindeman (formerly FC Anadol / B pitch of FC Anadol)

Belgium, province: Limburg

July & August 2024 / no match visited

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. To the east of the mosque, there is another football pitch, used by a club of Italian émigré workers, AS Lindeman.
• 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 (Valentinusstraat West). The old pitch is retained for lower team football and training sessions.
• 2005 / Giving 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 (Valentinusstraat Oost / 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.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two non-matchday visits: picture 1 = July 2024 / pictures 2-5 = August 2024

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author