Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain (1967-2022) / FC Quarwas (1972-1973) / FCQ Wasmuel (1973-1995) / AC Quaregnon-Wasmuel (2021-2022) / FC Wasmuel (2022-2025)

Complexe Sportif des Cheminots, Wasmuel (formerly FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain / FC Quarwas / FCQ Wasmuel / AC Quaregnon-Wasmuel / FC Wasmuel)

Belgium, province: Hainaut = Henegouwen

July 2025 / no match visited

Timeline

1945 / Foundation of a football club in Wasmuel, a village hemmed in between the industrial towns of Hornu and Quaregnon in the Province of Hainaut. The new club takes on the name FC Wasmuel, acquiring registration number 4324 upon being admitted into the Belgian Football Association (URBSFA / KBVB). For the 1945-46 season, the club is placed in Hainaut’s Regional League 3. It is unclear where the ground of this club was situated.
1946 / Finishing bottom of the table in Hainaut’s Regional League 3A, FC Wasmuel withdraws from competitive football after just one season.
1948 / After two years of inactivity on the part of FC Wasmuel, the club’s registration number 4324 is erased from the Belgian FA’s membership list.
1959 / Foundation of a football club in Quaregnon, which takes on the name FC Quaregnon, acquiring registration number 6236 upon joining the Belgian FA. It is unclear where this club played its football; possibly, it shared the ground at Rue de la Chapelle (modern-day Terrain Angelo D’Adamo) with recreational club CRER Quaregnon.
1960 / Starting its existence as a competitive club, FC Quaregnon is placed in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3.
1967 / Foundation of a new football club in Wasmuel – in fact a club for workers’ of the railway services, which takes on the name FC Cheminots de Saint-Ghislain, acquiring registration number 7147 upon joining Belgium’s FA, but playing its football in a local corporate league under registration number 5275. The foundation of FC Cheminots may very well coincide with the inauguration of the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots at Rue Marius Renard in Wasmuel, which, if not from the start, became the club’s home at some point early on in its history. It is clear that the facilities already existed prior to 1970.
1970 / Finishing in eighth place in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3B, FC Quaregnon is retrograded into the newly created bottom level, Provincial League 4, alongside US Frontière, FC Wihéries, SC Roisin, OC Blaton, SC Angre, AS Baisieux, AS Boussu, and bottom club CDF Española.
1972 / Moving away from its ground in Quaregnon, FC Quaregnon takes on the new name FC Quaregnon-Wasmuel, abbreviated as FC Quarwas, settling as groundsharers with FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain at the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots.
1973 / Having been referred to as FC Quarwas in the 1972-73 season, FC Quaregnon-Wasmuel now has its name officially adapted to be given as FCQ Wasmuel in the Belgian FA’s membership list. The club remains a regular feature in Provincial League 4 in the 1970s.
1983 / Champions in Hainaut’s Provincial League 4D, 7 points ahead of closest followers FC Ciply, FCQ Wasmuel wins promotion to Provincial League 3.
1984 / In the best season in club history, FCQ Wasmuel manages an eleventh place in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3B.
1986 / Finishing bottom of the table in Hainaut’s Provincial League 3B, FCQ Wasmuel drops back into Provincial League 4 alongside the club in second-last place, FC Genly-Noirchain.
1991 / Tennis courts are added to the set-up at the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots, with a tennis club, Tennis Club (TC) Cheminots Saint-Ghislain seeing the daylight simultaneously.
1995 / In its last season as an independent club, FCQ Wasmuel finishes in eighth place in Hainaut’s Provincial League 4C. Following the 1994-95 season, the club is absorbed into CRER (Cercle Royal Etoile Rouge) de Quaregnon, the club probably playing at Rue de la Chapelle in Quaregnon (cp. the remarks about the year 1959, above). CRER Quaregnon had been formed as a recreational club all the way back in 1926, joining the Hainaut branch of the socialist football federation Fédération Travailliste de Football (FTF), which in itself was a branch of the Fédération Sportive Ouvrière de Belgique, but it had changed allegiance in 1993 to join the regular Belgian FA, acquiring registration number 9268 and gaining promotion to Provincial League 3 in 1995. Most probably, CRER Quaregnon continued to make use of its facilities in Quaregnon, with the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots thus being left to recreational club FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain.
1997 / Two years following its absorption of FCQ Wasmuel, CRER Quaregnon in its turn is absorbed into neighbour club Borina Club Quaregnon, which changes its name to become Royale Etoile Boraine (REB) Quaregnon, with first team football being played at the Stade Louis Piérard of Borina and the ground of CRER Quaregnon at Rue de la Chapelle remaining in use for lower team football and training sessions.
2014 / The Complexe Sportif des Cheminots is officially renamed Centre Interrégional de Sports et de Délassements Rail (CISDR) Saint-Ghislain, although the old name remains in use – even in the signposts (cp. photo 1 below).
2016 / As REB Quaregnon and successor club JS Borina Quaregnon prove short-lived, with the latter ceasing activities in 2015, a new club is formed to take the place of its predecessors; Athletic Club (AC) Quaregnon-Wasmuel, which acquires registration number 9652 upon joining the Belgian FA. In the following years, playing its football at the Stade Louis Piérard, AC Quaregnon-Wasmuel plays its football in Provincial League 4 (2016-17, 2019-21) and Provincial League 3 (2017-19).
± 2017 / Around the year of its fiftieth anniversary, recreational club FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Football Club (RFC) Cheminots de Saint-Ghislain.
2021 / Following a conflict with Quaregnon’s municipal authorities, born from an involuntary groundshare at the Stade Louis Piérard with a newly formed FC Borina Quaregnon since 2019, AC Quaregnon-Wasmuel is thrown out of the stadium, settling at the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots in Wasmuel as groundsharers with FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain.
2022 / Possibly after 56 years, FC Cheminots Saint-Ghislain abandons the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots, settling on the pitch at Rue des Déportés in Sirault as RFC Cheminots Siraultois. That same summer, AC Quaregnon-Wasmuel changes its name to become FC Wasmuel.
2025 / Finishing in fifth place in Hainaut’s Provincial League 4B, FC Wasmuel qualifies for the promotion play-offs, knocking out Mellet Sports in R1 (1-0), only to suffer elimination in R2 at the hands of RSC Templeuvois B (3-2). That summer, FC Wasmuel moves away from the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots, changing its name to become AS Quiévrain-Wasmuel and settling at the Stade Communal in Quiévrain at the invitation of Quiévrain’s municipal authorities. Now left without a football club regularly using the ground, the Complexe Sportif des Cheminots is destined to be demolished in the foreseeable future.