Our football journey in Belgium has brought us to Vlimmeren recently. It's a small village in the Campines in the municipality of Beerse. A small village, but with an unexpected rich football history.
Vlimmeren is a very old village. Already in the 5th century there were sources that mentioned a similar name at that location. They've always been independent, but once they had a close working relationship with the neighbouring Wechelderzande. Since a few decades Vlimmeren is a part of Beerse. And since 1938, the village has its own football team as well.
But football in Vlimmeren already started before WWI. 't Dorp and 't Heiend were fighting on football pitches back then already, but without ever joining an FA. Throughout the years more and more youngsters from Vlimmeren went to Wechelderzande to play some ball. 't Heiend stopped their activities in 1926 and Wechelderzande already had two teams in the Belgian FA. But just before WWII broke out, some people in the village had enough of that and created their own team; Vlimmeren Sport.
The results never seemed to be of huge importance. Fun in the game was more important. And their history in the leagues kind of prove that. It took Vlimmeren Sport until 1980 before the club managed to promote for the very first time after winning its league. There were already some talks going on to start building a new stadium, and the champion's title helped the discussions. It did still take until 1987 before the new Karel Bo-Ge Stadion was inaugurated.
One year earlier, Football Club Teamsport Beerse was created. A women's team that started competing with Dames Beerse. Only ten years later, they were already in the national second division. To be able to make further steps in their growth, FC Teamsport Beerse decided to merge with K Vlimmeren Sport in 2000. And the successes would indeed come. In 2004 they promoted to the first division.
The amount of women's teams in Vlimmeren Sport expanded drastically and in 2010 the club wanted to take the next steps. As part of an integration project they went solo that year as Women's Department Lierse Sportkring. Two years later, the officiel merger with Lierse SK followed. The biggest successes followed next. A couple of cup victories and good results in the BeNe League would take the team to the long sought for next step. But in 2016 the inevitable happened. Lierse SK ceased to exist.
Spicy detail; the very first team shirts of Vlimmeren Sport were black with a white edge. Very quickly that was replaced by a white shirt. There simply was just too much confusion with the referee...
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.
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