2022 WORLD CUP - DAY 11 - GROUP F - CROATIA VS BELGIUM 0:0

a draw between Croatia and Belgium

1 Dec 2022
2022 WORLD CUP - DAY 03 - GROUP F - BELGIUM VS CANADA 1:0

Belgium beats Canada

23 Nov 2022
STARS IN EUROPE - GAMBIA - CLUB - BUBACARR SANNEH MOVES TO BELGIUM CHAMPIONS ANDERLECHT

Sanneh moves to the most successful Belgian football team in European competitions.

3 Sep 2018
NATIONAL TEAM - GAMBIA - COACH - Tom Saintfiet named new Gambia coach

Saintfiet takes over from former Gambia international Sang Ndong.

18 Jul 2018
2018 WORLD CUP - DAY 24 - THIRD PLACE - BELGIUM VS ENGLAND 2:0

Belgium beat England in World Cup third-place playoff 

14 Jul 2018
2018 WORLD CUP - DAY 22 - SEMI-FINALS - FRANCE VS BELGIUM 1:0

France beat Belgium to reach the World Cup final.

10 Jul 2018
2018 WORLD CUP - DAY 20 - QUARTER-FINALS - BRAZIL VS BELGIUM 1:2

Belgium advance to semi-finals

6 Jul 2018
<< club list

R.S.C. Anderlecht
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 09/2018


Full name
Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht

Nicknames
Purple & White, Sporting 
(Dutch: Paars-wit; 
French: Les Mauves et Blancs)

Founded
27 May 1908
1909 (registration)

Ground
Constant Vanden Stock Stadium
Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region

Capacity
21,500 

Owner
Marc Coucke

Chairman
Marc Coucke

Manager
Hein Vanhaezebrouck

League
Belgian First Division A

2017-18
Belgian First Division A, 3rd

 

Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, usually known as Anderlecht, is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. 

Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division Aand is the most successful Belgian football team in European competitions, with five trophies, as well as in the Belgian domestic league, with 34 championship wins. 

They have also won nine Belgian Cups and hold the record for most consecutive Belgian championship titles, winning five between the 1963-64 and 1967-68 seasons.

Founded in 1908, the club first reached the highest level in Belgian football in 1921-22 and have been playing in the first division continuously since 1935-36. 

They won their first major trophy after World War II with a championship win in 1946-47. 

Since then, they have never finished outside the top six of the Belgian first division. 

They are ranked 12th amongst all-time UEFA club competition winners, tenth in the International Federation of Football History & Statisticscontinental Clubs of the 20th Century European ranking and were 41st in the 2012 UEFA team rankings.

In 1986, they achieved their best UEFA ranking with a joint first place with Juventus.

Anderlecht have been playing their matches in the Astrid Park in the municipality of Anderlecht since 1917. 

Their current stadium, Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, was first opened in 1983, and replaced the former Emile Versé Stadium. They play in purple and white outfits. They have long-standing rivalries with Club Brugge and Standard Liège.


History

Founded as Sporting Club Anderlechtois on 27 May 1908 by a dozen football lovers at the Concordia café (located in the Rue d'Aumale/Aumalestraat in the municipality of Anderlecht), the club beat Institut Saint-Georges in their first match, 11:8.

They joined the official competition in 1909-10, starting at the lowest level in the Belgian football league system, then the third provincial division. 

In 1912-13, they gained promotion to the second-higher level of football, then named the Promotion. 

After only one season at that level, the championships were suspended due to World War I, and resumed in 1919-20. 

With the popularity of the team increasing, Anderlecht had moved to a new stadium in the Astrid Park in 1917 (then known as Meir Park).

They baptized the stadium Stade Emile Versé in honor of the club's first major patron, the industrialist Emile Versé.

At the end of the 1920-21 season, Anderlecht were promoted to the first division for the first time in their history. In the next 14 seasons, Anderlecht were relegated four times (1923, 1926, 1928 and 1931) and promoted four times (1924, 1927, 1929, 1935), earning themselves the mockery of local rival clubs Union Saint-Gilloiseand Daring Club de Bruxelles, who nicknamed them the "lift club". 

In 1933, 25 years after their formation, the club changed their name to Royal Sporting Club Anderlechtois.

Since their promotion in 1935, Anderlecht has remained at the top level of football. 

With Jef Mermans, a striker signed from K Tubantia FC in 1942 for a record fee of 125,000 Belgian francs, Anderlecht won their first league title in 1947. 

Their success increased in the following years as they won six more titles between 1949-50 and 1955-56 (winning three consecutive titles twice) and two more in 1958-59 and 1961-62. 

In the 1960s, under the coaching of Pierre Sinibaldiand then of Andreas Beres, the club even won five titles in a row (from 1963-64 to 1967-68), which is still a Belgian league record. 

The star of this team was Paul Van Himst, topscorer in 1965, 1967 and 1969 and Belgian Golden Shoe winner in 1960, 1961, 1965 and 1974.

Anderlecht played in the first European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1955-56, and lost both legs of their tie against Vörös Lobogo. 

They had to wait until the 1962-63 season to win their first European tie, with a 1:0 victory over Real Madrid, which followed a 3:3 draw in Spain. 

For the first time, they advanced to the second round, where they beat CSKA Sofia before losing to Dundee in the quarter-finals.

In the 1969-70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Anderlecht lost in the final against Arsenal. 

Between 1975 and 1984, Anderlecht only won one championship but they achieved considerable European success. 

They won the 1975-76 and 1977-78 European Cup Winners' Cups against West Ham United and Austria Wien respectively, as well as the two subsequent European Super Cups.

The 1982-83 season was a noteworthy season for the club for numerous reasons. 

Former Anderlecht favourite Paul Van Himst was named the new coach, they won the 1982-83 UEFA Cup and the rebuilding of the club stadium began. 

But in the domestic league, Anderlecht had to settle for second place behind Standard. 

Their bid to retain the UEFA Cup in 1983-84 failed at the final hurdle against English side Tottenham Hotspur.

Anderlecht reached the final controversially by beating another English side, Nottingham Forest, with a debatable extra time penalty to win 3:2 on aggregate. 

It was later found Anderlecht had bribed the referee the equivalent of £27,000 to ensure passage to the final.

After three second-place finishes in a row, the Purple and Whites secured an easy 18th title in 1984-85, 11 points ahead of Club Brugge. 

In 1985-86, Anderlecht won the championship again, but this time after a two-legged play-off against Club Brugge. Anderlecht won their 20th championship on the last matchday of the 1986-87 season. 

They then lost key players Franky Vercauteren, Enzo Scifo (transferred in the summer of 1987) and Juan Lozano (heavily injured in a game at KSV Waregema few months earlier).

A weakened team coached by Raymond Goethals finished only fourth in 1988 behind Club Brugge, KV Mechelen and Royal Antwerp, but they nonetheless managed to lift the Belgian Cup for the sixth time in club history after a 2:0 victory over Standard Liège, with goals by Luc Nilis and Eddie Krnčević. 

The next year, Anderlecht retained the trophy with goals by Eddie Krncevic and Milan Janković (again with a 2:0 win over Standard), but finished second in the championship. After his second cup win, Goethals left for Bordeaux in the French Ligue 1.

During the 1990s, Anderlecht reached one more European final, the 1990 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, which they lost to Italian club Sampdoria. 

The club then declined in European competitions, with the 1990-91 and 1996-97 UEFA Cup quarter-finals their best results. 

In national competition, they won four championship titles and a cup.

During the 2000s, Anderlecht secured five more Belgian champion titles, reaching a total of 29 titles in 2007, in addition to one more cup victory.

In the 2000-01 UEFA Champions League, they qualified for the first time to the second round, then another group stage, where they finished third in their group behind Real Madrid and Leeds United.

In 2009-10, the Purple and Whites won their 30th Belgian league title, while in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League, Anderlecht made history by becoming the first Belgian team to finish the group stage of a European competition with the maximum number of points, dominating group opposition Lokomotiv Moscow, Sturm Grazand AEK Athens. 

They were also the only team of that year's Europa League to achieve this feat.

On 6 May 2012, Anderlecht won their 31st Belgian championship, while on 22 July, they won their tenth Belgian Super Cup.

 

 


Players

  • Bubacarr Sanneh