Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging Tessenderlo Hulst Engsbergen Schoot Sport Tessenderlo, more commonly known as Thes Sport or simply Thes, is a Belgian association football club founded in 1942 based in

Tessenderlo Tessenderlo (; li, Loei) is a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. It is where the three Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp meet at the front gate of the Averbode Abbey. The municipality Tessenderlo encompasses ...

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. The club colours are blue and yellow and the team currently plays in the

Belgian National Division 1 The Belgian National Division 1, commonly referred to as simply Eerste Nationale (in Dutch) or Nationale 1 (in French) is a semi-professional and the third-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First ...

, the third tier of Belgian football. Their home stadium is the 3,000-seat capacity Gemeentelijk Sportpark.

History

The club was founded as Heidebloem Voetbalvereeniging Hulst on 14 June 1942, joining the

Royal 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, th ...

just a few months later. In 1943 the first dressing rooms were built next to the pitch in

Hulst Hulst () is a municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders. History Hulst received city rights in the 12th century. Hulst was captured from the Spanish in 1591 by Maurice of Orange but was recaptured b ...

, a village encompassed by the municipality of

. In 1970 a new sports centre was built, which was completed in 1973. At that time the club played at the lowest levels of Belgian football, mainly in the third and fourth

provincial level Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

, at that time corresponding to the seventh and eighth level of Belgian football. In 1992; the club obtained royal patronage for its fiftieth year of existence, thus becoming Koninklijke Heidebloem Voetbalvereeniging Hulst ( nl, Royal heatherflower football club Hulst). Two years later it succeeded for the first time to promote to the second provincial level, the sixth level of Belgian football and almost promoted again the following seasons, losing promotion play-offs twice. The club relegated in 1998 and started merger negotiations with two neighbouring clubs within Tessenderlo: VK Penarol Engsbergen from the village Engsbergen and Schoot Sport from the village Schoot. In preparation of the merger, the club became KVV Thes Sport Tessenderlo in 1999, with the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

Thes standing for Tessenderlo, Hulst, Engsbergen and Schoot. The clubs in the end did not find a mutual agreement and continued to compete separately during the 1999–2000 season. Schoot Sport did not want to cooperate and would eventually cease to exist in 2002. Penarol Engsbergen did cooperate with Thes Sport in the youth leagues, but remained a separate club. In 2001, the club moved from its accommodations in the commune of Hulst to the Gemeentelijk Sportpark closer to the centre of Tessenderlo. The terrain was available because Looi Sport, which was the original occupant, had gone defunct a few years before that in 1997. Meanwhile, Thes Sport started its rise in the ranks of Belgian football, promoting to the first provincial division in 2003 and even into the national leagues in 2005, before relegating back in 2009. In 2015, the club again gained access to the

Belgian Fourth Division The Belgian Fourth Division was the lowest nationwide division in Belgian football. The division was split into four separate leagues, A, B, C and D. The team with the most points in the four leagues together was declared the overall winner ...

, the lowest level of national football, at which time the merger with VK Penarol Engsbergen did complete and the latter ceased to exist. Following a title in the 2017–18 Belgian Second Amateur Division, the club promoted for the first time ever to the third level of Belgian football.

Current squad

''As of 16 August 2023.''

References

External links

Official website
1942 establishments in Belgium Association football clubs established in 1942 Football clubs in Belgium Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage Sport in Limburg (Belgium) {{Belgium-footyclub-stub