BELGIUM: R Anhée FC (±1942-2000) / R Anhée FC (B) (2000-)

Terrain de la Chaussée de Dinant, Anhée (B ground of R Anhée FC, formerly main pitch of  R Anhée FC)

Belgium, province: Namur = Namen

July 2010 & July 2025 / no match visited

Timeline

• 1936 / Foundation of a football club in Anhée, a village in the Province of Namur, situated on the boards of the Meuse south of Namur proper. At the initiative of the local priest, Abbé Decaux, Emmanuel de Wouters and Joseph Culot get together to form FC Anhée, which acquires registration number 2462 upon being accepted as new member of the Belgian Football Association (URBSFA / KBVB). Emmanuel de Wouters takes on the role of the club’s chairman. A pitch is laid out for the club on the fields of Mr Chevalier at Chaussée de Dinant – not the later main pitch, but a pasture in the immediate vicinity of it.
• 1937 / FC Anhée makes its debut as a competitive club in Namur’s Regional League 4.
• 1938 / Clinching the title in Namur’s Regional League 4 in its first competitive season, FC Anhée wins promotion to Regional League 3.
• ± 1939 / Being forced out of its pitch at Chaussée de Dinant, FC Anhée finds a temporary solution on a pitch laid out on the pastures of G. Jacmart, beyond the fringes of the village.
• 1940 / FC Anhée wins promotion from Namur’s Regional League 3 to Regional League 2.
• ± 1942 / After concluding an agreement with the local St Joseph copper factory, FC Anhée is allowed to settle on a pitch at Chaussée de Dinant – destined to remain in use until the present day. 
• 1943 / Clinching the title in Namur’s Regional League 2, FC Anhée qualifies for the promotion play-offs for a place in Provincial League 2, the highest provincial level in Namur at that time. Being drawn against LC Walcourt and Jeunesse Rochefortoise FC, FC Anhée goes on to win the group, with a comprehensive 7-2 home win against the team from Rochefort bringing about the decision. As such, FC Anhée wins promotion to Provincial League 2 – in fact the third promotion in five years.
• 1944 / Due to heavy fighting between the German and Allied forces in the south of Belgium in the summer of 1944, FC Anhée’s pitch at Chaussée de Dinant is completely ruined – having to be laid out anew. More gravely, as the Germans are driven out, it turns out that FC Anhée has lost no fewer than five of its players as war victims, two having died as prisoners-of-war in German camps and three more as resistance fighters. 
• 1945 / After two years of inactivity, FC Anhée restarts its life as a competitive club in Namur’s Provincial League 2.
• 1950 / Suffering relegation from Namur’s Provincial League 2 (being renamed Provincial League 1 in the early 1950s), FC Anhée drops back into Regional League 2 (renamed Provincial League 2).
• 1961 / Floodlights are added to the set-up at Chaussée de Dinant to allow midweek training sessions during the winter season.
• 1962 / Suffering relegation from Namur’s Provincial League 2, FC Anhée descends into Provincial League 3, the bottom division of Namur’s league pyramid at that time.
• 1968 / FC Anhée finishes as runners up in Namur’s Provincial League 3 behind champions JS Onhaye.
• 1969 / Runners-up in Namur’s Provincial League 3 behind champions Scarabée Club Yvoir, FC Anhée wins promotion to Provincial League 2 as additional promotion places are available.
• 1976 / FC Anhée drops back from Namur’s Provincial League 2 to Provincial League 3.
• 1977 / FC Anhée’s wooden clubhouse at Chaussée de Dinant is consumed in a fire, with a new construction in stone being erected as replacement in the following months.
• 1979 / Clinching the title in Namur’s Provincial League 3, FC Anhée manages a return to Provincial League 2 after an absence of three years.
• 1981 / FC Anhée finishes as runners-up in Namur’s Provincial League 2, 1 point behind champions US Thy-le-Château.
• 1983 / On the back of reaching the quarter final of the Provincial Cup the previous season, FC Anhée qualifies for the Belgian Cup, in which the club is eliminated in R1 by national league side RCS Verviétois (6-1).
• 1985 / Finishing in the lower half of Provincial League 2, FC Anhée goes on to suffer defeat in a play-off against ES Viroin-Olloy, played at RWSC Mettet’s ground (1-2). As a result, the club has to play a set of relegation play-offs against US Assesse and UBS Auvelais – but, managing victories over both of these sides, the club saves its skin in P2.
• 1986 / Reaching R1 of the Belgian Cup for a second time, FC Anhée suffers elimination in R1 at the hands of US Sartoise (2-1).
• 1987 / In the club’s best performance in Namur’s Provincial Cup, FC Anhée reaches the semifinal, in which it is knocked out by National Division 4 side UR Namur. Also in 1987, one year late, the club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, acquiring the royal epithet and adapting its name to become Royal Anhée Football Club, abbreviated as R Anhée FC. No information is available regarding the club’s first team performances between 1987 and 2008 – with the club finding itself in Provincial League 2 in both of these years.
• 2000 / A new ground is laid out for R Anhée FC at Rue du Petit-Bois (later renamed Stade Jacques Colot), in fact at the back of the old ground at Chaussée de Dinant, which has been retained ever since by the club for lower team football and training sessions.
• 2024 / The old clubhouse at Chaussée de Dinant is replaced by a new construction, erected in the orange and black club colours.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two different non-matchday visits: pictures 1-6 = July 2010 / pictures 7-12 = July 2025.

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