Royal Antwerp Football Club

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The Royal Antwerp Football Club is a Belgian football club located in Antwerp. Founded around 1880, this club is recognized as the oldest Belgian football club, and bears the number 1.

The Royal Antwerp FC is one of the ten founding clubs of the Belgian Football Federation and one of the seven founders of the Belgian Championship. It has been present continuously in national series since the 1901-1902 season.

Between 1957 and 1994, the Royal Antwerp FC played 55 European matches and played a European Cup final of Cup winners (CE2).

The club played in the 2023-2024 season in the Jupiler Pro League, the first level of Belgian football. It is his 120 season in national series and his 103 among the elite.

The club
Founded in 1880, with the name Antwerp Athletic Club, the club was one of ten founding circles, the , of the Belgian Union of Athletics Sports Societies UBSSA (which took the name of the Belgian Union of Football Societies Association (UBSFA) in 1912. The club became known as Antwerp Football Club. He was recognized as Royal Society and soon after his name was changed to Royal Antwerp Football Club. Considered the oldest club in Belgian football history, in December 1926 the "RAFC" received the number 1. The club of the boiling Antwerp metropolis never had a totally peaceful history. Thus in 1900, most players left the club to join a new entity recently created and called Beerschot AC (future number number 13). The Antwerp also had numerous internal disputes, such as the one which in 1929 led the club to be banned from playing in its own stadium. This did not prevent him from being crowned Belgian Champion for the same time. The Royal Antwerp Football Club was also the last Belgian club to play a European Cup final (the European Cup of Cup Winners) in 1993. He bowed (3-1) against Parma AC at Wembley Stadium. Between the 2004-2005 season and the 2016-17 season, the club played in Belgian Division 2. During the 2017-2018 season, the club returned to Division 1A.

In Belgium, the Royal Antwerp Football Club is frequently nicknamed the Great Old (the great old) amply deserved by its status as the oldest club still in operation. In the "Plat Country", this nickname is also given to other very old clubs, but it is then followed by an adjective (for example, the Great Old Wallon to designate RFC Liège).

Historical landmarks
1880 - foundation in 1880 of ANTWERP ATHLETIC CLUB, a multisport company whose members practiced indifferently rugby, cricket, tennis and football (without section of structured football).
1887 - formation in 1887, within Antwerp Athletic Club, of ANTWERP FOOTBALL CLUB structured football section (with Secretary and Treasurer); A first president was appointed there in 1889.
1892 - 08/05/1892, creation of the football section