Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: ROC Meix-devant-Virton (B) (±1989-)

Sunday, 13 July 2025

BELGIUM: ROC Meix-devant-Virton (B) (±1989-)

Stade Georges Briffart terrain 2, Meix-devant-Virton (B pitch of ROC Meix-devant-Virton)

Belgium, province: Luxembourg = Luxemburg

13 VII 2025 / ROC Meix-devant-Virton B - RES Aubange 2-2 / Pre-season friendly

Timeline

1941 / Foundation of a football club in Meix-devant-Virton, which takes on the name Olympic Club (OC) Meix-devant-Virton. Upon joining the Belgian Football Association, the club acquires registration number 3201. Most probably, the club’s first pitch, known at the time as Terrain de la Cholette, was located on the exact spot of modern-day Stade Georges Briffart.
± 1975 / OC Meix-devant-Virton’s ground, Terrain de la Cholette, is officially renamed Stade Georges Briffart in honour of an esteemed volunteer of the club who passed away at a relatively young age.
1978 / The current clubhouse is erected at Stade Georges Briffart. Oddly, the plaque giving the name of the ground on the clubhouse misspells Briffart’s surname, which is given as Briffard.
± 1989 / Stade Georges Briffart is extended with a second pitch, situated to the southern side of the main pitch.
1991 / As the club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, OC Meix-devant-Virton obtains the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Olympic Club (ROC) Meix-devant Virton.
2015 / The second pitch at Stade Georges Briffart, probably laid out in the late 1980s, is equipped with a synthetic surface thanks to an intervention by Meix’s municipal authorities, who officially take over the ownership of the 3G, while allowing the club to make use of it. That same year, the ROC Meix-devant-Virton enters a B team in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3, the bottom division of the provincial league pyramid in this province, for the first time – reserves’ teams having been allowed into the regular provincial league pyramid from the previous year onward. This second team plays its home matches on the synthetic side-pitch of Stade Georges Briffart.
2016 / In its first season, ROC Meix-devant-Virton B manages a respectable third place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3B, missing out on promotion in the ensuing round of play-offs.
2018 / Champions in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 1, ROC Meix-devant-Virton’s flagship team achieves a historic promotion to ACFF Amateur Division 3, the fifth and lowest tier of Belgium’s national league pyramid, for the first time.
2019 / Runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3B, 2 points behind champions AS Gérouville, ROC Meix-devant-Virton B achieves promotion to Provincial League 2 in the play-offs.
2024 / Finishing in fifth place in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A, ROC Meix-devant-Virton B qualifies for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is knocked out in R1 by ES Bleid (4-2). Also in 2024, ROC Meix-devant-Virton is one of four regional clubs to sign a partnership deal with R Excelsior Virton, entailing that part of the latter’s youth academy is to play under the flag of ROC Meix.
2025 / Runners-up in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A, 10 points behind runaway champions RSC Habay-la-Neuve B, ROC Meix-devant-Virton B qualifies for the promotion play-offs – a three-way competition with two other B teams, R Marloie Sport B and RCS Libramontois B. Drawing its away game in Marloie (1-1), Meix B goes on to defeat Libramont B emphatically in its second match (6-2), resulting in the team finishing in first place in the mini-competition and thus achieving promotion to Provincial League 1.

Note - Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1 & 3-15 = match visit, July 2025 / picture 2 = non-matchday visit (pre-3G), May 2013.