K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot
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Categories: Jupiler League | K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot | Belgian football clubs | Football (soccer) clubs established in 1999
K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot is a Belgian football club. This club was born in 1999 as a result of the merger between K.F.C. Germinal Ekeren and K. Beerschot V.A.C..
HistoryIn 1920 F.C. Germinal Ekeren was founded in the town of Ekeren, a northern suburb of Antwerp. Several years earlier, in 1899, Beerschot was founded at Het Kiel, a southern outskirt of Antwerp, where the 1920 Olympics had been held. It was only in 1942 that Germinal Ekeren finally registered with the Belgian Football Association, on July 30. In 1971, they added the prefix Koninklijk to their name (meaning Royal in Dutch). The team reached the top division in Belgian football in 1989 and finished 13th. They achieved their highest leaque position of third in 1996 and 1998 and subsequently qualified for the UEFA Cup. However, in 1999, due to the low attendance of supporters and limited expansion possibilities in Ekeren, the club merged with Beerschot who were then playing in the 3rd division and themselves had severe financial problems. The new team, K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen kept the matricule n°3530 of Ekeren to keep their place in the first division, but retained the stadium of Beerschot, rebuilding it in the process. By keeping the matricule of Ekeren, the honours of Beerschot were considered to be distinct and separate from the new team and the club finally dropped the name Antwerpen in 2003. In 2004 further financial difficulties were experienced and Marc Brys, a Belgian football coach was brought in. He led the team to victory in the Belgian Cup that year, and in doing so secured a place in UEFA Cup for his side. After only 7 matches in the Jupiler League 2005-06 season, he was fired due to bad results (4 points from 21 and a 3-0 defeat against the 18th placed team). European competitionsThe matricule n°3530 played its first European game as K.F.C. Germinal Ekeren in the season 1991-92 against Celtic F.C. of Scotland (losing 2-0 away and drawing 1-1 at home). They qualified for the UEFA Cup in that year following a 5th place finish in the championship. They then had to wait until 1995 and a 6th place finish to qualify for its next European competition (Intertoto Cup). Unfortunately by finishing 2nd in the first round of Group 3 behind FC Aarau of Switzerland, K.F.C did not qualify for the second round. In 1996-97 it qualified for the UEFA Cup after it finished 3rd in the league. The club was defeated by Grazer AK in the first round. In 1997-98 they played the Cup Winners Cup after a cup win. They lost in the second round at the hands of VfB Stuttgart after a win against FK Crvena Zvezda. The season after, they reached the UEFA Cup first preliminary round after a 3rd place, but lost in the second preliminary round against Swiss team Servette FC. Current squad 2007/08Last updated on 5 February 2008:
Former Players (Ekeren)
Honours
European record
References
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