Royal Léopold FC is 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 city of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. It was founded in as ''Léopold Football Club'' and over the years, numerous name changes in its history and mergers have happened with neighboring clubs who also struggled to keep the club alive. The club once played in the highest division, but later dropped to the provincial series, and now it currently plays in the Belgian Promotion D, the fourth level in Belgian football.

History

Early history

The club was founded on 11 February 1893 by Baron Albert de Bassompierre (1873–1956), making it the oldest active football club in

. The club was named ''Léopold Football Club'' in tribute to the

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

. It was created as a club for the

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

and

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

in Brussels. On 1 September 1895, Léopold Club was one of the founding members of the UBSSA, the forerunner of the RBFA. The team played in red and white. The team entered the first-ever official Belgian championship in 1895–96, and remained in the highest division until 1912, when the team finished last and was therefore relegated. So they played the 1912–13 in the second division but managed to finish second, thus rejoining the highest division in 1913–14. However, the team again finished last again in the last season before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and never managed to come back to the top level. During this time they also participated in the Challenge International du Nord, winning the inaugural edition in 1898 and again in 1899, and then reached the final a further one time in 1901. In 1900, the club participated in the first edition of the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

, regarded by many as the first-ever European club trophy. The tournament was held in

and all matches took place at Léopold FC's home ground, but despite being the hosts, they were knocked-out in the first round by the reigning Dutch champions

HVV Den Haag HVV (Haagse Voetbal Vereniging; Dutch for The Hague Football Club) is an amateur football club in The Hague, Netherlands. It was founded in 1883 as an extension of HCC, (The)'' Hague Cricket Club''. In 1978, on the occasion of the club's cent ...

by a resounding 8–1 loss, with a consolation goal from

Hendrik van Heuckelum Hendrik van Heuckelum (6 May 1879, The Hague – 28 April 1929, The Hague), nicknamed Henk, was a Dutch footballer who played as a forward for HBS-Craeyenhout and Royal Léopold Club, and who represented Belgium at the 1900 Summer Olympics, ...

Recent history

The club faced many name changes in its history, the last of them following a string of merges to keep the matricule n°5 alive (such as with R.C.S. La Forestoise in 1996 for example); it changed its name to the present one in July 2014.

Honours

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

** Runner-up (1): 1901–02 * Challenge International du Nord **Champions (2): 1898 and 1899 **Runner-up (1): 1901

References

External links

RSSSF Archive

Association football clubs established in 1893 Football clubs in Brussels Football clubs in Belgium 1893 establishments in Belgium Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage Belgian Pro League clubs Uccle {{Belgium-footyclub-stub