Right in the middle of the province of Luxembourg, you'll find the touristic village of Libramont-Chevigny. It's actually a combination of two smaller villages of which Libramont is the best known. And their local football team has had quite the years.
The origin of the current RCS Libramontois can be found in two different clubs. Both started their activities in 1926. It's not immediately clear which one is the oldest but they both joined the Belgian FA the same day that year: Avenir Libramontois Football Club and Jeunesse Sportive de Libramont started their regional football journey.
But it would be a short journey for both. Avenir stopped their activities in April 1930. Little less than a week before a new team was born, Cercle Sportif Libramontois. In August the same year that new club joined the FA and in November Jeunesse Sportive ceased to exist officially. Even though it's not an official merger according to the rules of the FA, we can partly consider it to be a merger: the board members of Avenir and Jeunesse Sportive decided to join forces in Cercle Sportif.
The next couple of years would become a rise to the national divisions. The long anticipated promotion to the national divisions would come in 1943, the first official season after the short break due to WWII. Oddly enough they didn't win their league as they ended second with one point difference from Athus. Cercle Sportif did receive the championship and promoted. At that time they were playing in the second regional league and since there was no top regional league the promotion to the national third division was a fact.
They relegated back to the regional leagues after only one year. After WWII, the FA decided to undo all relegations during the war but Cercle Sportif decided to play regionally anyway. In 1947 they earned back their promotion. But once again, their stay in national football was only for one year. As of 1950 a first golden era started. Cercle Sportif came back to third division and - apart from one year - they would continue playing the national leagues up until 1959.
After 1959, Cercle Sportif had to wait quite a while for a new golden era to begin. The biggest light point before that second golden era was the inauguration of a new stadium in 1971. The famous Elascon stand was used for the very first time. A couple of years later the great moments came back. In 1984 the team returned to the national divisions, fourth division at that time.
The team would stay there until 2001. Apart from four years in the regional leagues, they had some very consistent results in that fourth division. The absolute peak was without any doubt 1987 when they eliminated Antwerp FC in the cup, only to be eliminated by Standard later on. Afterwards the team would relegate. Up until now they didn't manage to return to the national divisions. But if a new stand is a prelude to great years, Cercle Sportif can rest assured. As in 2019, their old Elascon stand was demolished (sadly enough) and replaced by a completely new one. On to a third golden era!
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.
Comments