Koninklijk (, Dutch for 'royal') is an honorary title given to certain companies and non-profit organisations in the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Belgium, by the monarchs of each country. It was first introduced by Louis Bonaparte in 1807, then Kin ...

e Racing Club Zuid-West-Vlaanderen was a Belgian

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

from the municipality of

Harelbeke Harelbeke (; ) is a municipality and city located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Harelbeke proper and the towns of Bavikhove and Hulste. On January 1, 2019, Harelbeke had a total population of 28 ...

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

from 1930 to 2002. It played one spell in the

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

from 1995 to 2001. At the end of the 2000–01 season, the club was relegated to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

and it subsequently changed its name from K.R.C. Harelbeke to K.R.C. Zuid-West-Vlaanderen. The following year, the matricule n°1615 merged with K.S.V. Ingelmunster to become K.S.V. Ingelmunster-Zuid-West, a club now known again as KRC Harelbeke. The reason of the fusion was that Zuid-West-Vlaanderen went into liquidation after it was refused its license.

History

Racing Club Harelbeke was founded in 1930 and it registered the same year to the

Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, the ...

to become the

matricule Association football is the most popular sport in Belgium, which has been played since the end of the 19th century. The national association was founded in 1895 with the intention of bringing some order and organization to the sport. The fir ...

n°1615. In 1955 the club changed its name to K.R.C. Harelbeke. It appeared for the first time in the second division in 1978 and would eventually become a regular in that division, playing the

final round A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

four times before it won it in 1995. Harelbeke achieved its best ranking with a 5th place in 1998 right behind

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

Honours

Belgian Second Division final round The Belgian Second Division play-offs were a series of playoff matches to decide promotion to the Belgian Pro League, organised between 1974 and 2015. Following a large reform of the Belgian football league system at the end of the 2015–16 seaso ...

: **Winners (1): 1995

References

Belgian football clubs history

nbsp;– 1st and 2nd division final tables {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuid-West-Vlaanderen Association football clubs established in 1930 Defunct football clubs in Belgium Association football clubs disestablished in 2002 1930 establishments in Belgium 2002 disestablishments in Belgium Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage K.R.C. Zuid-West-Vlaanderen Belgian Pro League clubs