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K.V. Mechelen

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KV Mechelen
Full nameYellow Red Koninklijke
Voetbalclub Mechelen
Nickname(s)De Kakkers, Malinois, Malinwa, Geel-rood
Founded1904; 120 years ago (1904)
GroundAchter de Kazerne
Capacity16,672[1]
ChairmanLuc Leemans
Head coachBesnik Hasi
LeagueBelgian Pro League
2023–24Belgian Pro League, 8th of 16
Websitehttp://www.kvmechelen.be
Current season

Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen[2] (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌjɛloː ˈrɛt ˌkoːnɪŋkləkə ˌvudbɑlklʏp ˈmɛxələ(n)]), often simply called KV Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation: [kaːˌveː ˈmɛxələ(n)]) or KVM, or by their former French name FC Malinois, is a Belgian professional football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp province. KV Mechelen plays in the Belgian Pro League. They have won four Belgian championships and twice the Belgian Cup, as well as the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1988 European Super Cup. They collected most of their honours in the 1940s and in the 1980s.

KV Mechelen was founded in 1904 and, in 1921–22, promoted to the first division. After two successive relegation and promotion, they were back for good between 1928–29 and 1955–56. In the 1960s and 1970s, the club had several promotions and relegations between the first and second division. From 1983–84 to 1996–97, they had a successful first division spell, with a title and several second- and third-place finishes. During that period, they also won a European Cup Winners' Cup and they reached the same competition semi-finals as well as the European Cup quarter-finals.

KV Mechelen declined in the late 1990s though they had two more spells at the highest level from 1999–2000 to 2000–01 and in 2002–03. At the end of that season, the club did not receive their Belgian professional football license. They were therefore relegated to the third division with a nine-point penalty. After two promotions in 2004–05 and in 2006–07, KV Mechelen returned to the first division.

The club's outfits are a striped yellow and red shirt with black shorts and socks. They play their home matches at the AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne, where AFAS is their stadium sponsor and Achter de Kazerne means 'Behind the Barracks'. The stadium has been named so because there used to be barracks next to stadium. KV Mechelen fans have a long-standing rivalry with KRC Mechelen.

History

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Early days

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The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rival KRC Mechelen. The club had a first successful period in the 1940s. During World War II, in 1943, the club won their first domestic title. The second title came a few years later, in 1946, and in 1948 the club was successful again. After that, the club fell back. In 1954, they managed to finish third, only one point behind champions Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 1960s and the 1970s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division.

The club enjoyed a spell of both domestic and European success in the period from 1987 to 1992. During these five seasons, Mechelen won one Belgian championship and one Belgian cup title. They also finished second in the Belgian league twice and lost the Belgian Cup final twice. After winning the domestic cup title in 1987, and hence qualifying for the European Cup Winners' Cup, they completed the extraordinary achievement of winning this tournament in 1988. Mechelen are the last Belgian team that has won a European trophy.

Since 2000

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KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the final of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to Genk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi-finals with a 2–2 draw and a 1–0 loss against KAA Gent.

After a successful 2010 and four seasons for the yellow reds, coach Peter Maes decided to leave Malinwa and signed a four-year contract with Lokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes. Marc Brys was coach of FC Den Bosch, a second division team in the Netherlands. After two seasons he was sacked and Harm Van Veldhoven was appointed for the 2012–13 season. Van Veldhoven also could not lead KV Mechelen to Play-off 1, the clubs' recent unspoken ambition. He was fired in December 2013. At the end of the 2013–14 season KV Mechelen appointed Aleksandar Janković as head coach. Despite Janković's inability to lead the club to Play-off 1, Janković left for topclub Standard Liège and Mechelen had to appoint a new manager. The club ended up choosing Yannick Ferrera for the vacant job, who had just been fired as manager of Standard Liège.

Match-fixing and 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal

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2017 through 2019 proved to be a tumultuous period for the club. After eleven seasons at the highest level, the club was relegated on the last day of the 2017–18 season as a 2–0 win over Waasland-Beveren left them in last place on goal difference, due to Eupen beating Moeskroen by a bigger margin (4–0). During the following season, while the club was very successful on the pitch, winning both the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B and the 2018–19 Belgian Cup, the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal emerged in which the club was accused of match-fixing their final match of the 2017–18 season, allegedly having attempted to bribe certain players and officials of Waasland-Beveren. In March 2019, the club was found guilty and forced to relegate back to the First Division B despite winning promotion, and also denied to take part in the 2019–20 Belgian Cup and 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, the latter for which they had qualified by winning the cup. The club appealed the decision at the Belgian Arbitration Court for Sports which ruled on 10 July 2019 that, in accordance with the rules set by the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation was not a possible punishment in the circumstances. As a result, the club was punished with a one-season ban from European football and the Belgian Cup. The proceedings were plagued with controversy, with evidence (including witness statements) from an investigation into financial crimes in Belgian football not being made available during these disciplinary proceedings, as well as the impartiality of the prosecutor being called into question.

Rivalries

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KV Mechelen's most traditional rival is Racing Mechelen. However the two have sparingly met in the modern era, the last time in 2005, where the game had to be stopped due to crowd violence.[3] Traditionally KV Mechelen was the club of the catholic elite in the city while Racing was set up by the secular, liberal classes, with nationalist sympathies.[4] KV Mechelen has since taken on a more broader support from the Antwerp province and beyond while Racing's support has died down due to being in inferior divisions.

KV Mechelen also have a rivalry with football clubs from the neighbouring town of Lier (mainly Lierse SK and its successors).[5] They additionally have a rivalry with Beerschot Antwerp,[6] which was heightened during the Match fixing scandal of 2017–2019, due to Mechelen's promotion instead of Beerschot despite being found guilty of match fixing in the previous season.[7]

Honours

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Domestic

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International

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European record

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KV Mechelen's Belgian Cup win in 1987 saw the club participate in UEFA club competition for the first time in their history, entering the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup. It proved to be a highly successful campaign, with Mechelen reaching the final undefeated by winning seven of their eight matches en route. They then went on to defeat Ajax 1–0 in the final, Piet den Boer scoring the decisive goal early in the second half.[8] The following season Mechelen played 1988 European Cup winners PSV in the UEFA Super Cup, and defeated the Dutch side 3–1 on aggregate. Mechelen remain the last Belgian club team to have won a European club competition.[9]

As of December 2008.
Competition A GP W D L GF GA
European Cup / UEFA Champions League 1 6 2 3 1 9 3
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 2 17 13 3 1 26 8
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League 4 14 3 5 6 14 15
UEFA Super Cup 1 2 1 0 1 3 1

A = appearances, GP = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.

Results

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  • Q = qualification round
  • PO = play-off
  • R = round
  • Group = group stage / Group 1 = first group stage / Group 2 = second group stage
  • 1/8 = eighth finals / 1/4 = quarter-finals / 1/2 = semi-finals
  • F = final
Season Competition Round Country Club Score
1987–88 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R Romania Dinamo București 1–0, 2–0
2R Scotland St Mirren 0–0, 2–0
1/4 Soviet Union Dinamo Minsk 1–0, 1–1
1/2 Italy Atalanta 2–1, 2–1
F Netherlands Ajax 1–0
1988 UEFA Super Cup F Netherlands PSV 3–0, 0–1
1988–89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R Luxembourg Avenir Beggen 5–0, 3–1
2R Belgium Anderlecht 1–0, 2–0
1/4 Germany Eintracht Frankfurt 1–0, 0–0
1/2 Italy Sampdoria 2–1, 0–3
1989–90 European Cup 1R Norway Rosenborg 5–0, 0–0
2R Sweden Malmö FF 4–1, 0–0
1/4 Italy Milan 0–0, 0–2 (AET)
1990–91 UEFA Cup 1R Portugal Sporting CP 2–2, 0–1
1991–92 UEFA Cup 1R Greece PAOK 0–1, 1–1
1992–93 UEFA Cup 1R Sweden Örebro SK 2–1, 0–0
2R Netherlands Vitesse 0–1, 0–1
1993–94 UEFA Cup 1R Sweden IFK Norrköping 1–1 (AET), 1–0
2R Hungary MTK Hungária 5–0, 1–1
3R Italy Cagliari 1–3, 0–2

Summary of best results

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(2 cups)

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

- Quarter-finalists in 1990

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988
- Semi-finalists in 1989

UEFA Super Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988

Players

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Current squad

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As of 4 September 2024[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Belgium BEL Ortwin De Wolf
2 DF Belgium BEL Jules Van Cleemput
3 DF Spain ESP José Marsà
4 DF Belgium BEL Toon Raemaekers
5 DF Indonesia IDN Sandy Walsh
6 DF Algeria ALG Ahmed Touba (on loan from Başakşehir)
7 MF Belgium BEL Geoffry Hairemans
8 MF Guinea GUI Mory Konaté
9 FW Belgium BEL Julien Ngoy
10 FW Norway NOR Petter Nosa Dahl
11 FW Belgium BEL Nikola Storm
13 DF Belgium BEL Zinho Vanheusden (on loan from Inter Milan)
14 FW Belgium BEL Benito Raman
15 GK Belgium BEL Yannick Thoelen
16 MF Belgium BEL Rob Schoofs
No. Pos. Nation Player
17 DF Algeria ALG Rafik Belghali
19 FW Sweden SWE Kerim Mrabti
20 FW Germany GER Lion Lauberbach
23 DF Belgium BEL Daam Foulon
29 MF Belgium BEL Bas Van den Eynden
31 GK Belgium BEL Oskar Annell
32 MF Ivory Coast CIV Aziz Ouattara Mohammed (on loan from Genk)
35 MF Belgium BEL Bilal Bafdili
38 FW Zimbabwe ZIM Bill Antonio
39 MF Ghana GHA Isaac Asante
40 GK Belgium BEL Jannes Van Hof
77 FW Germany GER Patrick Pflücke

Other players under contract

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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
— DF Belgium BEL Iebe Swers

Out on loan

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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
— DF Morocco MAR Redouane Halhal (at Helmond Sport until 30 June 2025)

Former players

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Africa
Algeria

Burkina Faso

DR Congo
Europe
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Denmark
Greece

Israel

Montenegro
Portugal
Sweden
The Netherlands

Coaching staff

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As of 8 November 2023[10]
Position Staff
Head Coach KosovoAlbania Besnik Hasi
Assistant Coach Belgium Frédéric Vanderbiest
Belgium Gunter Van Handenhoven
Goalkeeping coach Belgium Stef Pauwels
Physical coach France Thibaut Meyer
Rehabilitation coach Belgium Dennes De Kegel
Physiotherapist Belgium Bart De Bruyn
Belgium Dieter Devaere
Belgium Iris De Clercq
Doctor Belgium Christophe Sintebin
Belgium Hendrik Gevers
Belgium Robin Van Houdt
Kit manager Belgium Marc Bols
Belgium Paul Weemaes
Team manager Belgium Greet De Jagher
Video analyst Belgium Jordi Jansen

Coaching history

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Aad de Mos is Mechelen's most successful manager, winning one league title, one cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup and one European Super Cup

Chairmen history

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Date Name
1904–06 Belgium Théophile Delvaulx
1906–51 Belgium Francis Dessain
1951–77 Belgium Patrick Dessain
1977–82 Belgium Herman Candries
1982–92 Belgium John Cordier
1992–94 Belgium Willy Dussart
Date Name
1994–97 Belgium Jef De Graef
1997–02 Belgium Willy Van den Wijngaert
2003 Belgium Mark Uytterhoeven
2003–2018 Belgium Johan Timmermans [nl]
2018–2020 Belgium Dieter Penninckx [nl]
2020– Belgium Luc Leemans

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Het AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne Archived 5 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine kvmechelen.be (last check 30 March 2018)
  2. ^ "INFO EN CONTACT". Archived from the original on 7 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Streek-/Stadsderby's België: #1 KV Mechelen vs. Racing Mechelen". doorfansvoorfans.org. 8 January 2017. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  4. ^ Duke, Vic; Renson, Ronald (1 March 2003). "From Factions to Fusions?: The Rise and Fall of Two-Club Rivalries in Belgian Football". International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 38 (1): 61–77. doi:10.1177/10126902030381004. S2CID 145169427.
  5. ^ "Specialist Vitas bezorgt Lierse koude douche in sfeervolle derby in Mechelen". voetbalkrant.com. 9 April 2017. Archived from the original on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  6. ^ "Beerschot Wilrijk-fans zwaaien met geld voor derby tegen van matchfixing beschuldigde KV Mechelen". Gazet Van Antwerpen. 21 October 2018. Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  7. ^ "Beerschot klaagt licentie KV Mechelen aan: 'It's a long shot'". Knack. 7 October 2019. Archived from the original on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  8. ^ "11 mai 1988 à la Meinau : Mechelen-Ajax". Racing Stub. 17 May 2006. Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  9. ^ Miller, Nick (9 February 2015). "Leeds, Aston Villa and River Plate among the Top 10 dramatic declines". ESPN FC. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Selectie" [Selection] (in Dutch). K.V. Mechelen. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
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