Going extremely lower league this week. In the smaller village of Hofstade, FC Verbroedering Hofstade is playing in the charming little Ossebeemden stadium.
It all started right after WWII (in 1945) when FC Albert Hofstade, SK Hofstade and Clauwaerts Hofstade decided to join forced and merge into FC Verbroedering Hofstade. It's unknown where these three teams played before the merge. If anybody know, we'd like to know as well. :-) The reason for the merger was a one time friendly game against British soldiers at the end of the war.
After only a couple of years the team reached the first successes by promoting to the top regional league in 1952. Unfortunately that would also be the highest division they play in. The next 25 years or so they mainly played in the second highest regional league.
In 1970 they moved to the Ossebeemden, but the move wasn't a success in the beginning. they would fall back to the lowest regional leagues for a while. In 2005 they would return the first regional division, but in the past 12 years they went down again.
Ossebeemden is a small ground with only a small stand, but beautiful to see with a very nice entrance gate. Definitely worth a visit!
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