Belgium, province: Liège = Luik
12 IV 2025 / RSC Lontzen - KFC Eupen 1963 B 1-0 / Liège, Provincial League 3D (= BE level 8)
Timeline
- 1926 / Foundation of a first football club in Lontzen, a village in the German-speaking part of Belgium, simply called Sportverein (Lontzen). SV Lontzen does not join any football association, instead sticking to playing recreational football against other haphazardly formed teams from neighbouring villages. It is unclear where the pitch of ‘Sportverein’ was situated. The club must have existed for about a decade – in any case, it failed to survive the hardships of World War II.
- 1946 / Refoundation of a football club in Lontzen, which takes on the name Club Sportif (CS) Lontzen - the French name being obligatory, given that German names for sports clubs were not allowed in Belgium in the aftermath of World War II and the horrors brought about by the Germans in the course of it. The founding meeting was held in the café of Joseph Kleinjans, with Joseph Bomgard being chosen as the club’s first chairman. Unlike its predecessor of the interwar period, CS Lontzen seeks affiliation with Belgium’s Football Association (URBSFA / KBVB), acquiring registration number 4498 upon being accepted as new member club. Starting out its life on a makeshift pitch laid out on the fields of a local smallholder, mr Rox, at Astenet, the club moved to a newly laid-out pitch later that same year, the so-called Berberlockplatz, probably located at Fleuschergasse (Chemin de Fleusch).
- 1947 / Having been placed in a division of reserves’ teams and other newly founded clubs for the 1946-47 season, CS Lontzen manages a respectable second place behind champions AS Eupen III. For the 1947-48 season, the club is placed in Liège’s Provincial League 3.
- ± 1952 / Moving its first team football away from the Berberlockplatz, which is retained for training purposes, CS Lontzen settles on a newly laid-out pitch, the Platz am Molberg (also referred to as Platz am Bach due to its location in the vicinity of the small brook bisecting the village.
- 1968 / In the best season in club history, CS Lontzen finishes as runners-up in Liège’s Provincial League 3G, 4 points behind champions FC Sart-lez-Spa. In one of the following years, the club must have tumbled into the newly created bottom division of Liège’s provincial league system, Provincial League 4.
- 1979 / Having been given notice by its lessors to abandon the Platz am Molberg as soon as possible, CS Lontzen moves to a newly laid-out pitch at Fleuschergasse (Chemin de Fleusch), a couple of hundred yards to the east of the club’s training pitch at the same road. At the new location, the club has the benefit of dressing rooms as well as its first-ever clubhouse in situ.
- 1985 / A second pitch is laid out at Fleuschergasse, giving the club the opportunity to abandon the Berberlockplatz.
- 1989 / CS Lontzen finishes as runners-up in Liège’s Provincial League 4E, 6 points behind champions FC Eupen 1963.
- 1996 / After two years of construction works, the new, two-tiered clubhouse at Fleuschergasse is inaugurated by Lontzen’s mayor, Albert Lecerf, while the building designed by the architect duo Pierre Ploumen and Revi Eicher is blessed by the village priest, Johann Aachen. That same year, reaching its fiftieth anniversary, the club acquires the royal epithet, though the name change flowing from it is not implemented officially as yet.
- 1997 / In 1997, one year after acquiring the royal epithet, CS Lontzen officially changes its name to become Royal Sporting Club (RSC) Lontzen – often written locally as KSC (Königlicher Sporting Club) Lontzen.
- 2009 / Having won promotion to Liège’s Provincial League 3 in the years between 1997 and 2008, RSC Lontzen now manages a fourth place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D, thus qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by RUS 1947 Emmels (1-0).
- 2012 / Finishing in third place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D, only 4 points behind champions AC Hombourg, RSC Lontzen qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is knocked out in R1 by FC Bütgenbach (1-2).
- 2014 / Finishing in second-last place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D, RSC Lontzen drops back into Provincial League 4 along with RCS Jalhaytois and bottom club RFC Xhoffraix B.
- 2016 / Champions in Liège’s Provincial League 4D, with an equal number of points as runners-up R Union Limbourg FC, but with a slightly better goal difference (+47 vs. +44), RSC Lontzen manages a return to Provincial League 3 after an absence of two seasons.
- 2019 / Finishing in third place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D, RSC Lontzen qualifies for the play-offs, but, yet again, the club fails to win an unprecedented promotion to Provincial League 2.
- 2022 / Finishing in fourth place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D, RSC Lontzen qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by R Standard FC Andrimont (result unknown).
Note – Important parts of the information given above have been derived from the booklet by Robert Creutz written on the occasion of the club’s fiftieth anniversary in 1996: “CS Lontzen 1946-1996”. Thanks to former RSC Lontzen chairman Gerd Malmendier for giving me the opportunity to use this important source.
No comments:
Post a Comment