BELGIUM: RFC Sart-lez-Spa (B) (1983-2016) / RFC Sart-lez-Spa (2016-)

Rue de l'Ermitage terrain 2, Sart-lez-Spa (RFC Sart-lez-Spa main pitch, formerly B pitch of aforementioned club)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

10 XII 2023 / RFC Sart-lez-Spa - RFC Hannutois 1-4 / Liège, Provincial League 1 (= BE level 6)

Timeline

• 1952 / Foundation of a football club in Sart-lez-Spa, which takes on the name FC Sart-lez-Spa (colloquially referred to simply as FC Sart). The club joins Belgium’s Football Association under registration number 5579 and settles at a ground situated at Rue de l’Ermitage, a stone’s throw to the east of the current ground.
• 1983 / Moving away from its original pitch, FC Sart-lez-Spa settles at a newly laid-out ground at the western end of Rue de l’Ermitage, consisting of three pitches.
• 2002 / Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, FC Sart-lez-Spa acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Football Club (RFC) Sart-lez-Spa.
• ± 2007 / Recreational club FC Nivezé is incorporated into RFC Sart-lez-Spa, with Nivezé Terrain Pré Jonas remaining in use for lower team football.
• 2012 / With Provincial League 2 being the highest level attained in the first sixty years of club history, RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in Liège’s Provincial League 4D in the 2011-12 season, 6 points behind champions RUS 1947 Emmels. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, RFC Sart successively edges past FC Büllingen (2-0), R Dolhain FC (1-2), and FC Herstal B (1-3) only to be defeated in the semi-finals by R Juprelle Union (2-0) – resulting in the club having to settle for another season in the bottom division of Liège’s provincial league pyramid.
• 2013 / RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in Provincial League 4D for the second time running, separated from champions FC Büllingen by a 4-point gap. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, RFC Sart successively sees off R Excelsior FC Lambermontois (4-1), RFC de la Roer (1-3), and R Mons FC (4-0), only to suffer defeat in the semi-final against R Seraing Athlétique FC (2-0); due to extra promotion places being available, though, the club earns itself an additional ticket to Provincial League 3.
• 2014 / In an excellent first season in Provincial League 3D, FC Sart-lez-Spa finishes in third place behind FC Ster-Franchorchamps and RUS 1947 Emmels. In the ensuing round of promotion play-offs, the club defeats RUA Plombières (1-1 and penalty shoot-out) and RUS 1947 Emmels (1-3) to accede to Provincial League 2 – a second promotion in a row. In the following seasons, the club manages to hold its own admirably well in P2C.
• 2016 / A synthetic pitch is put in place on the main pitch at Rue de l’Ermitage in the summer of 2016. First team football, however, is moved to pitch 2, on the southern side of the clubhouse, with a small covered stand being added to the set-up of that pitch shortly afterwards.
• 2020 / Having finished in third place in P2C the previous season – in which no promotion play-offs were held – RFC Sart-lez-Spa were runners-up in that same division, 5 points behind Etoile Elsautoise, in March 2020, when the season was cut short due to the COVID lockdown. 
• 2022 / In the first full season after the COVID lockdown, RFC Sart-lez-Spa finishes runners-up in P2C, 7 points behind champions KFC Eupen 1963. The promotion play-offs end in disillusion, as the club is eliminated in R1 by KFC Olympia Recht (1-1, penalty shoot-out: 3-4).
• 2023 / Finishing in fourth place in P2C, RFC Sart-lez-Spa qualifies for the promotion play-offs, beating KFC Weywertz (1-1 and penalty shoot-out) and KFC Rocherath (4-0) in the first two rounds, thus qualifying for the final group stage, with three clubs vying for two promotion spots. Finishing in second place, behind RFC Trooz, but ahead of R Union Momalloise, RFC Sart-lez-Spa accedes to Liège’s Provincial League 1 for the first time in the club’s existence - holding its own well in the first season at that level, finishing in tenth place.
• 2026 / Finishing bottom of the table in Liège's Provincial League 1, RFC Sart-lez-Spa descends into Provincial League 2 after three years, alongside CS Juprelle, KFC Olympia Recht, and RRC Hamoir.

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

BELGIUM: RC Bergilers

Rue de Waremme, Bergilers = Belliek (RC Bergilers)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

10 XII 2023 / RC Bergilers - Olympique Voroux 3-5 / ALFA Sunday League - Division d'Honneur (= ALFA level 1)

Timeline

• 1916 / Although the exact year of foundation is unclear, a football club existed in Bergilers – simply named Bergilers – in 1916. This club joined Belgium’s FA, but must have been wound up some time between 1917 and 1921.
• 1922 / Foundation of a new football club in Bergilers, called Récreation Football Club (RFC) Bergilers. This new club joins Belgium’s Football Association.
• 1926 / RFC Bergilers folds, ceasing all activities.
• 1928 / Foundation of a third successive football club in Bergilers, Racing Football Club (RFC) Bergilers, which joins Belgium’s FA under registration number 1324. 
• 1929 / After an existence of just one year, RFC Bergilers (1324) folds, ceasing all activities.
• 1941 / Foundation of a new football club in Bergilers, Racing Club (RC) Bergilers, which joins Belgium’s FA under registration number 2955.
• 1946 / RC Bergilers folds, ceasing all activities. 
• 1968 / After a recreational match between inhabitants of the village – the young against the old – in May 1968, the decision is taken to form a recreational football club, which sees the daylight three months later and takes on the name Racing Club (RC) Bergilers, thus copying the name of the short-lived registration number 2955. Founding members include Alphonse Baron, Fernand Odeurs, Edouard Montfort, Henri Vrancken, Marcel Delhalle, and Henri Vandersmissen – the first three all being future club chairmen. The club settles at a ground at Rue des Jacques, opposite the local cemetery. 
• 1969 / RC Bergilers joins ALFA (Association Liégeoise de Football Amateur), the Liègeois branch of the RLBFA / KBLVB (Royale Ligue Belge de Football Amateur = Koninklijke Belgische Liefhebbersvoetbalbond). Alphonse Delhalle becomes the club’s first officially elected chairman.
• 1972 / Winning the final at Oreye’s ground at Rue de la Cité against FC Perron (9-0), RC Bergilers obtains its first piece of silverware, Liège’s Provincial Cup for recreational teams.
• 1973 / RC Bergilers first team wins the title in ALFA Division 3, thus gaining promotion to D2.
• 1979 / Having managed six seasons in ALFA D2, RC Bergilers now descends into D3.
• 1982 / RC Bergilers starts its own youth academy, but the experiment does not last longer than three seasons.
• 1984 / RC Bergilers accedes to ALFA Division 2 after an absence of four years.
• 1990 / Former professional league player, Hungary’s István Lakner, who successively played at Szombathelyi Haladás, RFC de Liège, RFC Sérésien, FC Assent, and RCS Libramontois, takes over the role as player-coach at RC Bergilers, staying on in that capacity for eight years.
• 1993 / Floodlights are put in place at RC Bergilers’ ground at Rue de Waremme.
• 1994 / Finishing in joint-first place in ALFA Division 2, RC Bergilers has to play a tie-break match with its fellow-champions to determine which club will accede to Division 1, but the club loses this tie-break – thus staying in D2. Also in 1994, the club enters a veterans’ team in ALFA’s Saturday divisions for the first time.
• 1995 / Champions in ALFA D2, RC Bergilers accedes to ALFA Division 1 for the first time. The adventure does not last longer than one season, though, with relegation following immediately in 1996.
• 1997 / Runners-up in ALFA D2, RC Bergilers earns a return ticket to Division 1.
• 1998 / RC Bergilers’ player Benoît Dedry earns ALFA’s Ballon d’Or, awarded to the league system’s best player of the season. Moreover, Dedry also crowns himself top scorer of the league.
• 1999 / Coached by Raymond Falise, who succeeded István Lakner as coach in 1998, RC Bergilers wins the nationwide Belgian cup for recreational football clubs.
• 2000 / Alain Ledoux, club chairman since 1992, decides to start from scratch with a new team in ALFA’s bottom division, D3. He entices István Lakner to return to the club as manager.
• 2001 / Coached by István Lakner, RC Bergilers wins the title in ALFA D3 without a single point lost and a goal difference of + 212 (224-12).
• 2002 / Winning a second successive title with István Lakner as coach, RC Bergilers manages a return to ALFA D1, the top flight of ALFA (later renamed Division d’Honneur).
• 2004 / As in the previous year, István Lakner Jnr. – son of the successful coach – is elected ALFA’s best player, winning Ballon d’Or.
• 2009 / RC Bergilers’ first team finishes in second place in ALFA’s Division d’Honneur, just 1 point behind champions CS Awirs – repeating this performance, again finishing runners-up, in the following season.
• 2010 / RC Bergilers’ player Ilgyz Schakirov is top scorer of ALFA’s Division d’Honneur as well as being awarded the title of best player in the league system, winning the Ballon d’Or.
• 2011 / Winning the title in ALFA’s Division d’Honneur with coach Philippe Guille, RC Bergilers also goes on to win the ALFA Super Cup.
• 2012 / RC Bergilers is runners-up in ALFA’s DH yet again, finishing in second place behind UOS Seraing.
• 2013 / In a clean sweep, RC Bergilers, coached by Antonio Pillitteri, wins the ALFA DH title as well as this league’s Provincial Cup and Super Cup.
• 2014 / Yet again champions in Division d’Honneur with trainer Antonio Pillitteri, RC Bergilers goes on to clinch a third ALFA Super Cup in four seasons. Player Eric Noel wins ALFA’s Ballon d’Or, while Dylan Lambrecht crowns himself top scorer of the league.
• 2015 / RC Bergilers’ first team finishes in second place in ALFA Division d’Honneur behind RFC Bierset – going on to repeat that performance in 2016, this time having to leave the title to Réal Hasard, and in 2019.
• 2018 / Coached by Xavier Lempereur, RC Bergilers’ first team clinches the title in ALFA Division d’Honneur yet again, as well as winning ALFA’s Provincial Cup. 
• 2022 / In a repeat of the 2012-13 season, RC Bergilers, coached by Nicolas Vandevelde, wins the ALFA DH title as well as this league’s Provincial Cup and Super Cup.
• 2023 / RC Bergilers’ first team wins the title in ALFA’s Division d’Honneur as well as winning the Super Cup. Nicolas Vandevelde leaves the club to become head coach at R Jeunesses Oléyennes Réunies, with István Lakner Jnr., son of the former player and coach, taking over.

Note – Thanks to RC Bergilers’ chairman since 1992, Alain Ledoux, for providing me with a file with a detailed historical survey of the club.

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

NETHERLANDS: SV Halle

Sportpark De Meisterskamp, Halle Gld. (SV Halle)

Netherlands, province: Guelders = Gelderland

3 XII 2023 / SV Halle - SVGG 2-1 / District East, Sunday League 5C (= NL level 10)

Timeline

• 1926 / Foundation of a football club in Halle, which takes on the name Halsche Voetbalclub or HVC. The club settles at a piece of farmland on the eastern outskirts of the village, Terrein Liezebrink. The club not disposing of its own clubhouse, the players gather at Café Oosterink, where the rooms upstairs are at their disposal to change clothes, upon which both teams walk down to the pitch together. Not long after the foundation of the club, the pitch had to be laid out anew – and was given a quarter’s turn – due to the dimensions of the original pitch not being in conformity with the standards of the so-called Geldersche Voetbalbond (GVB), which organised football leagues in the province of Guelders below the level of (K)NVB (Sunday) League 4.
• 1928 / At the behest of KNVB authorities, HVC has to change its name due to this abbreviation already having been taken by a club in Amersfoort, avv HVC (Hollandia-Victoria-Combinatie). Thereupon, the club takes on the name Halle 1, later adapted to becoming vv Halle.
• ± 1958 / A set of dressing rooms are added to the set-up at Terrein Liezebrink thanks to the efforts of vv Halle’s chairman at the time, who ran a construction company.
• 1965 / vv Halle wins the title in GVB Division 2, thus acceding to GVB Division 1. The club repeated this feat on several occasions, but no exact information is available on this subject.
• 1970 / Moving away from Terrein Liezebrink after 44 years, vv Halle settles at the newly laid-out Sportpark De Meisterskamp in the heart of the village. The new park consists of two pitches as well as temporary changing facilities. 
• 1973 / As fully-fledged dressing rooms are inaugurated at Sportpark De Meisterskamp, the temporary changing rooms are rebuilt to become the new clubhouse. Also around this time, a sports hall is inaugurated at Sportpark De Meisterskamp, leading to the idea to found a volleyball team in Halle. The decision is taken to incorporate a new volleyball branch into the football club, which changes its name from being Voetbalvereniging (vv) Halle to Sportvereniging (SV) Halle.
• 1995 / A new training pitch is laid out at the far western end of the ground. Thereupon, the old training pitch at the northern end is removed and replaced by a car park. Also in 1995, the clubhouse is given a thorough renovation, while additional changing rooms are added to the set-up as well.
• 1996 / With the GVB being wound up and its league system being incorporated into the regular KNVB Divisions as KNVB District East, Leagues 5 & 6, SV Halle is placed in Sunday League 6E.
• 2012 / Finishing in fourth place in District East’s Sunday League 6C, SV Halle manages to break down the door to Sunday League 5 after winning a round of promotion play-offs.

Note – Important parts of the information above were provided by Ab Scheers, former player, coach, and board member of SV Halle.

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