There are quite some changes happening in Wavre near Brussels. At least when it comes to football. Recently Racing Jet Wavre (not long ago their name changed into Wavre Sports FC) has been evicted from the Stade Justin Peeters. R Wavre Limal will move to that stadium now.
And with this move R Wavre Limal will be coming home again. The team started shortly after WWI (1920?) as Wavre Sports in Wavre. From the very start they played on the place where the current Stade Justin Peeters is located. Even though all of the stands were added later on. Shortly after, in 1926, they received the magical matricule number 79 and Wavre Sports can consider themselves to be part of a select group of oldest still active teams in Belgium. Sadly enough they kept on playing the regional divisions for quite some time.
The swinging sixties would change everything for R Wavre Sports. In 1962 they promoted to the national leagues (fourth division) for the very first time ever. It wouldn't take long before they got a taste of third division as well as they promoted there in 1964. The next years would be a serious yo-yo effect. Three years later a first relegation came and again a year later they were back in the regional leagues. Not long after the team went back up. Fourth division in 1969, third division in 1971 and again fourth division in 1972. It all went very rapidly.
The last peak came a few years later. In 1976 the team went back to third division, but again it was for a short time only. By the time the clock hit 1979 they found themselves in the regional leagues again, only never to return again. But that wasn't all. In 1988 the village of Wavre was shocked by the merger between R Wavre Sports and Royale Union Limaloise. As Royal Wavre Limal matricule number 79 moved to Limal to play in Le Martineau, the home ground of RU Limaloise. The gap that was left behind in Wavre was soon filled by a team coming from Jette, the other side of Brussels.
Founded as Racing Club de Jette and after a merger with Royal Stade de Bruxelles (a merger on its own between RUS de Laeken and US du Centenaire) the team moved as Racing Jet de Bruxelles in 1988 from Jette to Wavre to become Racing Jet de Wavre. They would play the national leagues several times and they proved to be a worthy successor of the old Wavre Sports. But the last few years it all went downhill. A name change to Wavre Sports FC in 2018 didn't change anything and due to financial problems the team has been evicted from the stadium. Their future is very dark...
Royal Wavre Limal from their side was looking for a new place they could call their home. Le Martineau will be redeveloped for a housing project in the near future. It came as a coincidence the Stade Justin Peeters became available. Next season the old Wavre Sports returns to the stadium where they have been playing for 68 years before. It'll be for one year though as the Stade Justin Peeters will be redeveloped into a new hockey sports centre. What will happen afterwards is not known yet. But let's first give Le Martineau (home of RU Limaloise for 52 years and R Wavre Limal for 32 years) a proper goodbye!
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