Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

and their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football has started in the 2012–13 season. Charleroi was founded in 1904 and they first reached the first division in 1947–48. Their highest finish was runner-up in the 1968–69 season. They have also twice reached the

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 ...

final, losing in 1977–78 to

Beveren Beveren () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders which comprises the towns of Beveren, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene. The port of the Waasland (Dutch: ''Waaslandhaven'') is in Beveren ...

and in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

. Sporting Charleroi have a long-standing rivalry with their crosstown rival ROC de Charleroi-Marchienne, currently playing in the third division. Charleroi play their home matches at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, which was refurbished for the

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

. The stadium hosted 3 group stage games in the Euro 2000 among which the 1–0 victory of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Charleroi have been recruiting several French players in recent years, including

Michaël Ciani Michaël Henry Ciani (born 6 April 1984) is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre back. Club career His performances during the 2008–09 season led to increased speculation that Ciani would sign with another club with ...

, Cyril Théréau and

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Bertrand Laquait.

History

Charleroi Sporting Club was founded in 1904 and they 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°22. Twenty years after their foundation, they qualified to play in the

Promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

(then the second level in Belgian football) and in 1929, the club changed its name to Royal Charleroi Sporting Club. Rivals from Olympic Charleroi were playing in the first division in the late 1930s and the 1940s, while Sporting Charleroi was playing one level down, until they promoted in 1947. In 1949, Sporting Charleroi finished 4th (2 points behind

) whereas Olympic Charleroi was 14th. But Olympic took the lead again until 1955 and their relegation to the second division. At the end of the 1956–57 season, Olympic Charleroi had promoted to the first division but Sporting Charleroi finished last in the first division and was thus relegated to the second division. A spell of 9 seasons in the second division followed and in 1966–67 Sporting Charleroi was back at the top level. They finished at the second place in 1968–69 5 points behind Standard Liège but within two years they were relegated again. In 1974 the first division was changing from 16 to 20 teams and Sporting Charleroi was chosen to play at the top level. Olympic Charleroi promoted too as they had won the second division right before but they remained at the top level for just one season. Sporting underwent a new relegation in 1979–80 (17th on 18) but was back five years later. Their best result since then in the first division is a 4th place in 1993–94. In September 2005, the

G-14 The G-14 was an organisation of European football clubs that existed between 1998 and 2008. It consisted of 14 European top class teams initially, later expanded to 18. It was disbanded in 2008 and was replaced by the European Club Association ...

took FIFA to court over the eight-month injury incurred by

Abdelmajid Oulmers Abdelmajid Oulmers (born 12 September 1978) is a retired Moroccan professional footballer. Oulmers is the subject of a major legal battle between football clubs and FIFA over the right to compensation for injuries sustained during internationa ...

whilst on international duty with

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

Colours and badge

The colours of Charleroi are black and white with a shirt generally striped, which led to the team being nicknamed The Zebras.

Stadium

The actual ground was baptized in 1939 with a match Sporting-Union du Centre and it was located near the

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

named Mambourg. In 1985 the stadium was slightly modernized as the club had qualified for the first division. It was then heavily renewed in the late 1990s in view of the

2000 European Football Championship The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

. The name changed on 24 May 1999 from Stade du Mambourg to Stade du Pays de Charleroi. During the tournament, the full capacity of the stadium was up to 30,000 seats. The Stade du Pays de Charleroi hosted notably the match between

and

. The highest stand was eventually reduced and the capacity is now 15,000.Het Stade du Pays de Charleroi
sporting-charleroi.be (last check 30 March 2018)

Honours

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 te ...

**Runners-up: 1968–69 * Belgian Second Division **Winners: 1946–47, 2011–12 **Runners-up: 1965–66 *

Belgian Second Division play-offs 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: 1985 *

**Runners-up: 1977–78,

European record

Overview

''Correct as of May 2016''

Matches

Current squad

On loan

Club officials

Coaches

Jiří Sobotka Jiří Sobotka (also known as Georges Sobotka; 6 June 1911 – 20 May 1994) was a Czech football player and manager. He played internationally for Czechoslovakia. Career Sobotka played for Czechoslovakia national football team (23 caps, 8 goals ...

(1968–69) * Lukas Aurednik (1969–71) *

Léopold Anoul Léopold "Pol" Anoul (19 August 1922 – 11 February 1990) was a Belgian footballer. During his club career he played for Royal FC Liégeois (1942–1957) and Standard Liège (1957–1960). From 1947 to 1954, he earned 48 caps and scored ...

(1974–75) * Jean-Paul Colonval (1975–76) *

Aimé Anthuenis Aimé Anthuenis (born 21 December 1943) is a Belgian former professional football player and manager. He managed the Belgium national football team between 2002 and 2005. After a career as a defender, Anthuenis moved into coaching, first as the ...

(1 July 1987 – 30 June 1989) * Georges Heylens (1990–92) *

Luka Peruzović Luka Peruzović (born 26 February 1952) is a Croatian football coach and former player, who managed Belgium's Standard Liège, Charleroi and Anderlecht and Qatar's Al Sadd. He also holds a Belgian citizenship. Club career As a player, Peruzovi� ...

(1 July 1991 – 30 June 1992) * Robert Waseige (1 July 1992 – 30 June 1994) *

Georges Leekens Georges Leekens (born 18 May 1949) is a Belgian football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of four national teams: the Belgian, Tunisian, Algerian and Hungarian national football teams. He also managed ...

(1 July 1994 – 30 July 1995) *

(1 August 1995 – 30 June 1997) * Robert Waseige (1 July 1997 – 1999) *

(1999 – 8 December 1999) * Raymond Mommens (1999–00) * Manu Ferrera (2000) *

Enzo Scifo Vincenzo "Enzo" Daniele Scifo (; born 19 February 1966) is a retired Belgian football midfielder. He has also managed the Belgium national under-21 football team and several Belgian club sides. He played for clubs in Belgium, France and Italy, ...

(2001–02) * Dante Brogno (November 2002 – 3 October 2003) * Robert Waseige (15 October 2003 – 26 April 2004) *

Jacky Mathijssen Jacky Mathijssen () (born 20 July 1963 in Dilsen-Stokkem) is a Belgian former football player and manager who is currently managing the Belgium U21 squad. Managerial statistics ''As of 19 November 2019'' Honours *2003 Runners-up Belgian Cup ...

(26 April 2004 – 30 June 2007) * Philippe Vande Walle (1 July 2007 – 10 December 2007) *

Thierry Siquet Thierry Siquet (born 18 October 1968 in Huy) is a Belgian retired professional footballer who played as a defender and is the manager of Belgium U18 and the technical director of Virton football club. While at La Louvière he helped them win ...

(11 December 2007 – 9 December 2008) * John Collins (15 December 2008 – 30 June 2009) *

Stéphane Demol Stéphane Auguste Ernest Demol (born 11 March 1966) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a central defender, and a current manager. He amassed Belgian First Division A totals of 120 games and 11 goals over the course of seve ...

(2009) *

(1 July 2009 – 1 November 2009) *

Tommy Craig Thomas Brooks Craig (born 21 November 1950) is a Scottish former football player and coach. Craig had an 18-year playing career as a midfielder, playing over 100 league games for English clubs Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United. Towards th ...

(20 November 2009 – 14 April 2010) *

(1 July 2010 – 20 September 2010) * Csaba László (23 September 2010 – 17 March 2011) * Zoltan Kovacs ''(interim)'' (24 March 2011 – 4 April 2011) *

(4 April 2011 – 30 June 2011) * Jos Daerden (1 July 2011 – 26 September 2011) * Tibor Balogh (27 September 2011 – 22 February 2012) *

Mario Notaro Mario Notaro is a Belgian football manager. Currently he is working for Charleroi as an assistant manager in the Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the t ...

''(interim)'' (23 February 2012 – 5 March 2012) *

Dennis van Wijk Dennis Johannes van Wijk (; born 16 December 1962) is a Dutch football coach and former football player. He is currently unemployed after most recently managing Oostende in the Belgian First Division A. Van Wijk was a left-back who began his ...

(5 March 2012 – 12 June 2012) * Yannick Ferrera (14 July 2012 – 14 February 2013) *

''(interim)'' (14 February 2013 – 13 March 2013) *

''(interim)'' (March 2013 – 13 April 2013) *

Felice Mazzu Felice is a name that can be used as both a given name, masculine or feminine, and a surname. It is a common name in Italian, where it is equivalent to Felix. Notable people with the name include: Given name Arts and literature Film and theater * ...

(1 June 2013 – 3 June 2019) *

Karim Belhocine Karim Belhocine (born 2 April 1978) is a French football coach and a former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently unemployed after most recently managing Belgian club Kortrijk. Early life Belhocine was born in Vénissieux, France, ...

(1 July 2019 –30 June 2021) * Edward Still (1 July 2021 -22 October 2022)

References

External links

*
Official Website
*

Charleroi SC at Weltfussball.de

Charleroi SC at National Football Teams.com

Charleroi SC at Football-Lineups.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charleroi Association football clubs established in 1904 Football clubs in Belgium R. Charleroi S.C. 1904 establishments in Belgium Belgian First Division A clubs