Koninklijke Racing Club Gent is a Belgian association football club from the city of

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

East Flanders , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Oost-Vlaanderen.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van O ...

. It is currently playing in the Promotion A, 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 the ...

. The club underwent 5 merges and changed its name many times. It achieved its best ranking in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

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 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, ...

in the late 1890s and received 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 firs ...

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 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 ...

. It lost the final of the first

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

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 Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent (, English: ''Royal Athletic Association Ghent''), often simply known as Ghent or by their nickname ' ( en, The Buffalos), is a Belgian sports club, based in the city of Ghent, East Flanders. Their football ...

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 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 Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

) 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: **Winners (1): 1930–31 **Runners-up (1): 1922–23 *

: **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