Racing White Daring de Molenbeek 47, also known as RWD Molenbeek and often referred to as RWDM, is a Belgian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club founded in 1951 as

Standaard Wetteren Standaard Wetteren was a Belgian association football club team from Wetteren. Its matricule (5479) still exists as it was sold to investors who created a new team, RWDM47. History The club was founded as an amateur club named Standaard Molenho ...

. In 2015, Wetteren folded and merged with another club, liberating the matricule which was sold to people wanting to revive the former

RWDM RWDM may refer to: * Royal White Daring Molenbeek, a former football club which dissolved in 2002 after financial difficulties. * RWDM47, a football club founded in 2015 to reinstate the history of the former club. See also * R.W.D.M. Brussels F.C. ...

with matricule 47 which folded in 2002. As such the new club was named RWDM47. The club has been on the rise ever since winning two consecutive promotions from the fifth tier to the fourth and fourth to third. In December 2021, the club announced that it had come under the ownership of American business executive John Textor, who also holds stakes in English side

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, Brazilian side

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills o ...

and French side

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. RWDM's academy is considered one of the best in Belgium, and many footballers have come from there, notably

Adnan Januzaj Adnan Januzaj (born 5 February 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Spanish club Sevilla and the Belgium national team. Born and raised in Brussels, he began his career with Anderlecht before joining Manchester ...

and

Michy Batshuayi Michy Batshuayi-Atunga (born 2 October 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Belgium national team. Batshuayi began his professional career at Standard Liège in 2011, scorin ...

to name a few Belgian internationals as well as a few internationals for other countries. The club currently plays in the

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

. It participated in the

2015–16 Belgian Cup The 2015–16 Belgian Cup, called the Croky Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the 61st season of Belgian's annual football cup competition. The competition began on 24 July 2015 and ended with the final in March 2016. The winners of the competitio ...

, where it reached the fourth round.

Rivalries and fanbase

RWDM's traditional rival is

Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s it has been based at the Jo ...

, which goes back to the 19th century when RWDM were known as Daring Club. RWDM also have a rivalry with RSC Anderlecht, with just 3 kilometres separating the two clubs and the fixtures often taking over the mantle of the "Derby of Brussels" in the professional era due to Union's relative decline. RWDM also have rivalries with Eendracht Aalst,

Lierse Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring (), often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six ...

and

RFC Liège Royal Football Club de Liège (more commonly known as RFC Liège) is a professional football club based in Liège, Belgium. It currently plays in the Belgian First Amateur Division. Its matricule is 4, meaning that it was the fourth club to reg ...

. RWDM drew support from across the Belgian capital due to its merger of 4 teams, as well as in the Periphery, where many ''Brusseleirs'' migrated to, in contrast to the more locally based Saint-Gilles support and the nationwide Anderlecht support. It had high attendances for a big part of its existence as

, until financial troubles and the subsequent changeover with Johan Vermeesch in charge of the new club led to the name change to

FC Brussels Racing White Daring Molenbeek Brussels F.C., often simply referred to as RWDM Brussels, F.C. Brussels or simply Brussels was a Belgian association football club based in the municipality of Molenbeek in the Brussels Capital-Region. They last ...

, and caused a split in the fanbase. During their years as FC Brussels, the

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley P ...

group Brussels Power 05 emerged, while many of the "old school" casuals "Brussels Boys" boycotted. These days both supporter groups sit in the same ''Bloc A''.

Players

First-team squad

Out on loan

Club staff

References

External links

Official website
{{Belgian First Division B teamlist Football clubs in Belgium Association football clubs established in 1951 1951 establishments in Belgium Molenbeek-Saint-Jean Football clubs in Brussels