Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: VK Hooikt (1974-±1979) / KV Hooikt (±1979-)

Wednesday 7 August 2024

BELGIUM: VK Hooikt (1974-±1979) / KV Hooikt (±1979-)

Terrein Koningsbos, Koningshooikt (KV Hooikt, formerly VK Hooikt)

Belgium, province: Antwerp = Antwerpen

7 VIII 2024 / KV Hooikt - KFC Putte 4-4 / Antwerp, Provincial Cup - group stage, group 1

Timeline

1929 / Foundation of a football club in Koningshooikt, which is given the name FC Hoyckt. The club joins the so-called Vlaamsche Voetbalbond (VVB), a Flamingant league association. FC Hoyckt settles on a pitch situated along the Itterbeek canal – laid-out on a plot of no man’s land in between the lands of Baron Puissant Baeyens and the farmstead of Mr De Cleyn. In the course of the 1930s, the club moved to a pitch laid out on a piece of land by a local smallholder, Mr De Ryck, at Beekstraat.
1938 / Changing its allegiance by abandoning the Vlaamsche Voetbalbond and joining the official Belgian Football Association (KBVB) with registration number 2682, the club adapts the orthography of its name to become FC Hooikt. FC Hooikt starts its life in Antwerp’s Regional League 3 (3e Gewestelijke). In the course of the following 36 years, the club moved from Terrein Beekstraat to successive grounds at Misstraat and at Mechelbaan.
1949 / Champions in Regional League 3C, FC Hooikt wins promotion to Regional League 2 – renamed Provincial League in 1952.
1957 / Finishing second-last in Antwerp’s Provincial League 2A, FC Hooikt drops back into Provincial League 3.
1958 / Champions in P3D, FC Hooikt wins promotion to Provincial League 2.
1964 / Bottom of the table in P2A, FC Hooikt drops back into Provincial League 3.
1972 / Finishing in seventh place in P3D, FC Hooikt descends into the newly formed Antwerp’s Provincial League 4.
1973 / Champions in P4B, FC Hooikt manages an immediate return to Provincial League 3. Also in 1973, following the fashion of the day to use the progressive Dutch spelling rather than English, FC Hooikt changes its name to become Voetbalklub (VK) Hooikt.
1974 / Abandoning Terrein Mechelbaan, VK Hooikt settles at the newly laid-out Terrein Koningsbos – heralding a return of the club to Beekstraat, where it spent part of its early history. At Terrein Koningsbos, the VK Hooikt has at its disposal a pitch surrounded by a gravel running track made use of by two athletics clubs from Lier, Lyra and Lierse.
± 1979 / On the club’s fiftieth anniversary in 1979 – or perhaps one or two years later – VK Hooikt acquires the royal epithet, becoming Koninklijke Voetbalklub Hooikt. Confusingly, the first part’s of the club name is alternatively abbreviated as KV or KVK. In Belgian FA administration, the club is known as KV Hooikt.
1983 / Champions in P3C, KV Hooikt wins promotion to Provincial League 2.
1986 / Finishing in fourteenth place in P2B, KV Hooikt drops back into Provincial League 3.
1989 / KV Hooikt’s sixteen-year-old youth player Sven Vermant, who had been at the club since his fifth year, joins KV Mechelen’s youth academy. Making his debut in KV Mechelen’s first team in 1991, Vermant goes on to have a professional career as a midfielder at Club Brugge KV, where he has two spells, wearing the blue and black on more than 400 occasions, and FC Schalke 04, eventually bowing out into non-league football at R Knokke FC in 2008 and hanging up his boots altogether in 2010. In the course of his career, Vermant also won 18 caps for the Belgian national side, being part of the Belgian squad in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
1997 / Bottom of the league in P3B, KV Hooikt drops back into Provincial League 4.
1998 / Champions in P4B, KV Hooikt wins promotion to Provincial League 3. The club holds out at that level for one season only, dropping back into P4 in 1999.
2000 / Runners-up in P4C, KV Hooikt accedes to Provincial League 3 by winning the promotion play-offs.
2002 / Coach Danny Helsen, who replaced Carl Verlinden at the helm of the club in the course of the season, fails to steer KV Hooikt’s first team clear from the relegation zone, with the club finishing in fourteenth place in P3B and eventually dropping back into Provincial League 4 after the relegation play-offs.
2006 / In a thorough renovation of Terrein Koningsbos, a new clubhouse is erected alongside the southern side of the main pitch, replacing an older construction at its western end; also, the running track around the main pitch is removed, with the pitch itself moved slightly further westward.
2007 / Champions in P4C, 3 points ahead of KVC Booischot, KV Hooikt wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
2010 / Finishing in third place in P3B, KV Hooikt qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by FC Zwaneven (3-0).
2011 / Champions in P3A, 1 point ahead of closest rivals RVC Hoboken, KV Hooikt accedes to Provincial League 2, 25 years after last having played at that level.
2013 / Finishing in fifth place in P2A, KV Hooikt qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by K Loenhout SK (4-2 aggr.).
2015 / Finishing in joint last position in P2A, KV Hooikt descends into Provincial League 3 along with fellow bottom clubs KFC Katelijne and KVC Olympic Deurne.
2017 / Finishing in fourth place in P3B, KV Hooikt qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by KFC Wezel Sport (5-0 aggr.).
2020 / The side-pitch at Terrein Koningsbos is equipped with a synthetic surface, as is the small sandlot at the eastern side of the main pitch.
2022 / Runners-up in P3C, 15 points behind champions FC Punt-Larum, KV Hooikt qualifies for the play-offs, successively defeating KFC Beekhoek Sport (7-3 aggr.) and K Achterbroek VV (5-1 aggr.), thus winning promotion to Provincial League 2.
2024 / Finishing in fourth place in P2A, KV Hooikt qualifies for the play-offs. Defeating KVV OG Vorselaar in R1 (1-2) and KFC Lentezon Beerse in R2 (0-3), the club goes on to manage a third consecutive win, having the better of local rivals KFC Broechem in R3 (0-1), resulting in the club winning promotion to Provincial League 1 for the first time – incidentally taking Broechem and R2 drop-out SC Duffel with them, due to two extra promotion places being available. Also in 2024, the club qualifies for the Belgian Cup for the first time in history, defeating KFC Lint in R1 (1-5), but being eliminated by SC City Pirates Antwerpen in R2 (5-1).