Earlier we had already visited the A stadium of FC Lebbeke (check it here https://www.pitchd.tv/home-1/ground-sportcomplex-lebbeke-site-1-fc-lebbeke). That was the 'old stadium' of the former RC Lebbeke. After the merger with KSK Lebbeke the Konkelgoed stadium became the B stadium of this new team. Time to put the spotlight on this one as well.
We already gave the history of RC Lebbeke in our earlier post and we intentionally left out the history of the older KSK Lebbeke. KSK Lebbeke was already created in 1942, oddly enough a time quite a lot of teams were founded. We couldn't immediately find any football history in Lebbeke before that time, so we must assume there never was an official team before WWII. It didn't take long though before SK Lebbeke first reached the national leagues. This happened in 1959 when they promoted to fourth division.
Immediately they fought for a spot in third division. During the 60s they would often end in the highest positions, just missing out on the desired promotion. In 1963 they even ended on a shared first spot with an equal amount of points as Voorwaarts Tienen. But it was Tienen that gained promotion. In 1971 though the national story was over for a while when they relegated to the regional leagues. They would stay there until 1996. In the meantime (in 1978) Rapide Club Lebbeke was founded and very soon the two were at the same level of football. RC Lebbeke even did better and made it to the third division.
In 1997 KSK Lebbeke had to go back to the regional leagues for a brief period, but in 1999 they returned. This while RC Lebbeke relegated from third to fourth division. Up until 2005 KSK Lebbeke missed out on promotion for a couple of times again. But that year it was over. KSK relegated to the regional leagues again and would never return. One year later RC Lebbeke joined them in the regional leagues. While Rapide Club was working on their way back to the national leagues (which finally happened in 2016), KSK was struggling in the second highest regional league with only one highlight on the top regional league.
In 2016, after decades of talks to merge, it finally happened. The unique situation whereby two teams played right next to each other and often in the national leagues was over and the two teams as well as the two stadiums became one. FC Lebbeke started and the matricule number of KSK Lebbeke disappeared, only because by using the RC Lebbeke matricule number they could start in the national leagues. Konkelgoed, although more charming for us, became the B stadium; mainly used by the B team and the youth department.
Comments