Royal Football Club de Liège (more commonly known as RFC Liège) is a professional
football club based in
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
, capital of
Liège Province
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is the easternmost province of the Wallonia region of Belgium.
Liège Province is the only Belgian province that has borders with three countries. It borders (clockwise from the north) the Dutch province of Limburg, the ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. The team currently play in
Challenger Pro League, the second tier in Belgian football. Its
matricule is 4, meaning that it was the fourth club to register with
the country's national federation (founded 1895), and the club was the
first Belgian champion in history (5 Championships & 1 Cup). The 'philosophy' of the club is based on integration of local young players and on popular and faithful support. The club was also known for being 'homeless' between 1995 and 2015, but is now playing on its own ground in the
Rocourt area of Liège.
In 1990, FC Liège precipitated a ground-breaking ruling for European football, when its refusal to release
Jean-Marc Bosman after his contract ran out led to the
Bosman ruling, a
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...
decision that caused major changes to the structure of European football.
History
Early history
The city of Liège was introduced to football at the end of the 19th century by English workers, and the
Parc de la Boverie, which housed a velodrome, quickly became the home for the first football players in the region.
The cyclists were also among the first to take an interest in this new sport, which allowed them to train during the
winter months.
[
On 14 February 1892, Liège Football Club was founded by members of the Liège Cyclist's Union, who also organized the first edition of the "Liège-Bastogne-Liège", the oldest cycling race, on the same day.] The club's first official match took place in Brussels against a 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 ...
FA XI, and lost the match 4–0 on a 200 x 100-metre pitch.[ The club's registrations quickly increased, and the Liège team took its revenge against the Brussels FA on a new ground located in the gardens of the , this time wearing red and blue jerseys in homage to the ]London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
-based English club Dulwich Hamlet.[
In 1895, Liège FC became an inaugural member of the Belgian Football Association as Football Club Liégeois (FC Liégeois), and the club won the subsequent inaugural national championship of Belgium in 1895–96, thus becoming first-ever Belgian Champion.][ Most of the members of that first squad were Belgian, such as Fernand Defalle, Lucien Londot, Ernest Moreau de Melen, Gérard Kleinermann, but also had Englishmen, such as Treharne Reeves, Samuel Hickson, who was the top scorer of the inaugural edition, and Harry Menzies, who was the son of the club's president Ronald Menzies.] Londot and Moreau de Melen went on to represent Belgium in the football tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics, while Londot, Defalle, and Menzies went on to feature in the first-ever match of a Belgium national team at the 1901 Coupe Vanden Abeele on 28 April.
Liège won back-to-back titles in 1898 and 1899, beating FC Brugeois 6–3 in the two-legged final of 1899.[ During this period, Liégeois had an unbeaten run of 23 official matches that lasted over two years, between 28 February 1897 and 12 November 1899, coming to an end in a 3–5 loss to Antwerp FC.] However, Liège FC eventually bowed to the superiority of the Brussels teams, which marked the beginning of the dark years since they were the first former Belgian champions to be relegated to the second division.[
In 1920 the prefix Royal was, when the club changed its name to Royal Football Club Liégeois (RFC Liégeois). Its name had been shortened to RFC Liège by the time of its consecutive championships in 1952 and 1953, the only clubs able to contest a dominating streak by Anderlecht, which won the three championships before (1949–1951) and after (1954–1956). RFC Liégeois reached the 1963–64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-finals, losing in three games against the eventual winner of the Cup, Spain's Real Zaragoza. Between 1965 and 1985, there were poor results, and the club survived with the help of its own tradition: young players coming from inside the club, and faithful supporters.
At the end of the 1980s, RFC Liège played in European competitions, facing such notable clubs as Benfica, Juventus, Rapid Vienna, Hibernian, Werder Bremen and Athletic Bilbao. The club won a Belgian Cup in 1990.
In 1990, the club forced French club Dunkerque to pay a transfer fee for Jean-Marc Bosman, although his contract had expired with the RFC Liège. Dunkerque refused to pay the fee, resulting in a series of lawsuits which led to the Bosman ruling in 1995.
]
Recent history
In 1995, the club faced bankruptcy when its stadium, Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt, was sold and demolished to build a movie theatre. To survive, the club joined with R.F.C. Tilleur-Saint-Nicolas, based in the Liège suburb of Saint-Nicolas, to become R. Tilleur F.C. de Liège.
The club went down from the First Division (which it had not left since 1945) to the Third Division. The word Tilleur was dropped from the team name in 2000, returning to "RFC Liège". From 1995 to 2009, the club moved between the Second and Third Divisions, with two Third Division titles in 1996 and 2008.
In 2008–09, the club played in the Second Division, but suffered back-to-back relegations, dropping to the Fourth Division in April 2011. During the 2010–11 season, RFC Liège played its 3000th match and scored its 5000th goal at national level.[
In the 2015–16 season, RFC Liège plays in Division 3. RFC Liège holds the Belgian record for the number of seasons played at national level with 117 seasons between 1896 and 2019, having played a total of 67 seasons in D1, including 50 consecutive seasons (1950–1995), 28 seasons in D2, 11 seasons in D3, and 2 seasons in D4.][ Liège FC still is the only club that has played all its seasons (117 as of 2019–20) at a national level, versus county or local levels, having won a total of five First Division championships: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1952 and 1953, thus being the 6th most successful (active) Belgian club, only behind Beerschot (7), Standard (10), Union Saint-Gilloise (11), FC Bruges (13), and Anderlecht (31).][
In the 2022–23 season, RFC Liège confirmed promotion to Challenger Pro League from 2023–24 after draw 0–0 at Tienen on Matchweek 35. On 14 May 2023, the club finished runner-up of Belgian National Division 1 in 2022–23 season.
]
Stadium
Starting in 1921, RFC Liège played in Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt, in the suburban municipality of Rocourt. Rocourt became part of the city of Liège in 1977. The stadium was sold, and demolished, in 1995, earning RFC Liège the nickname 'homeless'.
Between 1995 and 2015, RFC Liège played in Tilleur (1995–2000), Seraing (2000–2004), Ans (2004–2008), and Seraing again (Pairay Stadium, 2008–2015).
In 2015 the club returned to Rocourt, playing its home matches in the new Stade de Rocourt.
Current squad
Former players
* Tarik Kharif
Staff
Head coach: Gaëtan Englebert
Assistant coach: Eric Deflandre
Goalkeeper coach: Pierre Drouguet
Honours
League
* Belgian First Division
**Champions (5): 1895–96, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1951–52, 1952–53
**Runners-up: 1896–97, 1958–59, 1960–61
*Belgian Second Division
The Belgian Second Division 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 Association in 1909 and folded in 2016, when it was replace ...
**Winners: 1911–12, 1922–23, 1943–44
*Belgian Third Division
The Belgian Third Division (, ) was the third highest level in Football in Belgium, Belgian football. It had two leagues of 18 teams each (Belgian Third Division A, A and Belgian Third Division B, B) at the same level. This competition, originall ...
**Winners: 1942–43, 1995–96, 2006–07
* Belgian Fourth Division
**Winners: 2014–15
* Belgian National Division 1
**Runner-up: 2022–23
Cups
* Belgian Cup
**Winners: 1989–90
**Runners-up: 1986–87
* Belgian League Cup
**Winners: 1986
**Runners-up: 1973
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liege, RFC
Association football clubs established in 1892
Football clubs in Belgium
1892 establishments in Belgium
Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage
RFC Liège
Belgian Pro League clubs
Seraing