Stéphane Lievens is passionate about football stadiums. This Brussels resident has already visited more than 2,000 around the world, but he retains a particular feeling for historic Belgian stadiums, but forgotten by the general public. A short tour in three steps.
Stage 1: Watermael-Boitsfort
For the first stage, Stéphane Lievens, passionate about football stadiums, meets us in Watermael-Boitsfort, in an enclosure with 42,000 seats which hosted the meetings of the Racing Club of Brussels. The enclosure today lives to the rhythm of athletics and provincial football matches. “It remained in its juice“, notes Stéphane Lievens when he sees, for example, the foam that fills the stands today.
Step 2: Uccle
For the second stage of the route, stop in Uccle, at the Vivier d’Oie stadium. The structure dates from 1904 and has 1,000 seats. This is where the Red Devils played their first international match against France, final score: 3-3. “The Belgian, French and English presidents, because the referee was English, were in the gallery and decided in 1904 to create FIFA“, says Philippe De Putter, former administrator of the Hockey Royal Racing Club of Brussels.
The stand is classified as Belgian heritage by the monuments and sites of the Brussels region, but is today prohibited from access to supporters of the local hockey club for security reasons. “It is essential to preserve it“, according to Stéphane Lievens. A renovation of the stand is also planned for one and a half million euros. “There is a first phase which will be structural, roof, pillars, wall structure. And a second phase which will undoubtedly be during the summer where the finishing touches will be carried out: benches, stairs, etc.“, explains Philippe De Putter.
Step 3: Saint Nicholas
The last stage of this route leads to Saint-Nicolas, at the Bureaufosse stadium. It lives in the shadow of Sclessin, its neighbor of Standard and was built in 1960. Capacity: 13,000 people. He is nicknamed the “witch’s cauldron“. “It really has the architecture of English stadiums, old-fashioned, close to the pitch, with a roof typical of old stadiums“, observes Stéphane Lievens.
These forgotten venues today constitute football memories.
Forgotten Belgian stadiums Red Devils football matches instant sports
