Koninklijke or (, 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 Ki ...

Racing Club Gent is a Belgian association football club from the city of Ghent, East Flanders. It is currently playing in the

Promotion A __NOTOC__ The Promotion A ''(Doctor of an academic field)'' was an academic qualification in the DDR. It was introduced in the 3rd higher education reform with the "Regulation of academic grades" of 6 November 1968 and was governed by the doctoral o ...

, i.e. the fourth level in the

Belgian football league system The Belgian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Belgium. Men's system The league system underwent restructuring which was approved by the Royal Belgian Football Association. One important step was th ...

. The club underwent 5 merges and changed its name many times. It achieved its best ranking in Belgium in 1925 and 1929 with a 5th place in the first division.

History

The club was founded in the late nineteenth century with the fusion between Athletic Club Gantois (Gantois means "from Ghent" in French), F.C. Gantois and Sport Pédestre Gantois. The new club named Racing Club de Gand registered to the Belgian Football Association in the late 1890s and received the matricule n°11. It took part to the 1898–99 and 1899–1900 seasons in the first division B. Back in 1908 at the top level, the club finished last (12th) and played two seasons in the second division. It lost the final of the first Belgian Cup in history in 1912. From 1911 to 1935 R.C. de Gand played in the first division (except in 1922–23 and 1930–31 when it was in the second division) and so did its rivals K.A.A. Gent between 1913 and 1929. The club had meanwhile changed its name to R.R.C. de Gand in 1925. In 1952 the club played in the first division again but this time for its last season at this stage, as of 2005. Three years later it was relegated to the

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

from which it would never be promoted. In 1987 R.R.C. Gent (as it was named since 1969, i.e. the name of the city was put to Dutch) merged with F.C. Heirnis Gent to become R.R.C. Heirnis Gent. It then changed back briefly to R.R.C. Gent in 1999 and merged with K.V.V. Standaard Meulestede in 2000 to become R.R.C. Gent-Zeehaven. In 2002 the club merged with K.F.C. Oostakker and changed its name to K.R.C. Gent-Zeehaven. Finally in 2016 the club changed its name to K.R.C. Gent.

Honours

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

: **Winners (1): 1930–31 **Runners-up (1): 1922–23 * Belgian Cup: **Runners-up (1): 1911–12

References

Belgian football clubs history

nbsp;– 1st and 2nd division final tables
Official website
Gent-Zeehaven Sport in Ghent Association football clubs established in 1899 1899 establishments in Belgium Belgian First Division A clubs {{Belgium-footyclub-stub