K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen

Sporting Lokeren

Full name	Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen
Nickname	Tricolores
Founded	22 January 1923 (1923-01-22)
Dissolved	20 April 2020 (2020-04-20)
Ground	Daknamstadion, Lokeren
Capacity	12,136[1]
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈspɔrtɪŋ ˌklʏp ˈloːkərən oːstˈflaːndərə(n), -rə ʔoː-]), often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren, was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ceased to exist in 2020 after going bankrupt.^[2] A few days after the bankruptcy, the club announced that rather than dissolving entirely, it would merge with KSV Temse to form Lokeren-Temse, starting in the Belgian Second Amateur Division (fourth level).^[3]

Lokeren first reached the first division in 1974–75. Since then, it had a short spell in the Second Division between 1993–94 and 1995–96. Lokeren had its most successful period in the 1980s, achieving second place in the league in 1980–81 as well as a Belgian Cup final the same year. Its best European result was reaching the quarter-final of the 1980–81 UEFA Cup. In the year 2000, the club merged with K Sint-Niklase SKE. They were registered to the Royal Belgian Football Association with the matricule number 282. Lokeren's colours were white, black and yellow. They played their home games at the Daknamstadion.

In 2012, Sporting Lokeren won the Belgian Cup, the club's first-ever honours, after beating KV Kortrijk in the Cup Final. They won their second Cup just two years later, after beating Zulte Waregem 1–0.

The matricule No. 282 was given in 1920 to a club named Football Club Racing Club Lokeren (nicknamed Racing FC), but the team stopped its activity the next year. On 22 January 1923 Racing Club Lokeren was founded. Between 1945 and 1951, it had a slight name change (to Racing Athletiek- en Football Club Lokeren) and the new name since 1951 was Koninklijke Racing Club Lokeren. Due to financial problems, the fusion with the other team from the town (Koninklijke Standaard FC Lokeren) became necessary in 1970. The new club was then named Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren.

In 2000, the club merged with Koninklijke Sint-Niklaas SKE to form Sporting Lokeren Sint-Niklaas Waasland. The latest name change occurred in 2003, with the province name added to the club name.

In 2018, Sporting Lokeren were relegated to the First Division B, the second tier of Belgian football.^[4] In 2019, the club was taken over by a group led by Louis de Vries and Alexander Janssen, taking the positions of president and CEO respectively.

On 20 April 2020, the club was declared bankrupt during the 2019–20 season.^[2] Lokeren had outstanding debts of €5 million and was not able to pay its staff and players anymore.^[5]

On 22 April 2020, Lokeren agreed to merge with KSV Temse to form a new club in K.S.C. Lokeren-Temse and to start in the Second Amateur Division, the national fourth level.^[6]

• Belgian First Division:
  • Runners-up (1): 1980–81
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (1): 1995–96
• Belgian Cup:
  • Winners (2): 2011–12, 2013–14
  • Runners-up (1): 1980–81
• Belgian Super Cup:
  • Runners-up (2): 2012, 2014

Season	Competition	Round		Club	Home	Away
1976–77	UEFA Cup	1R		Red Boys Differdange	3–1	3–0
		2R		Barcelona	2–1	0–2
1980–81	UEFA Cup	1R		Dynamo Moscow	1–1	1–0
		2R		Dundee United	0–0	1–1
		3R		Real Sociedad	1–0	2–2
		QF		AZ 67 Alkmaar	1–0	0–2
1981–82	UEFA Cup	1R		Nantes	4–2	1–1
		2R		Aris Thessaloniki	4–0	1–1
		3R		1. FC Kaiserslautern	1–0	1–4
1982–83	UEFA Cup	1R		Stal Mielec	0–0	1–1
		2R		Benfica	1–2	0–2
1987–88	UEFA Cup	1R		Honvéd Budapest	0–0	0–1
1999	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R		IA Akranes	3–1	3–1
		3R		Metz	1–2	1–0
2001	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R		B68 Toftir	0–0	4–2
		2R		Zagłębie Lubin	2–1	2–2
		3R		Newcastle United	0–4	0–1
2002	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R		WIT Georgia	3–1	2–3
		2R		VfB Stuttgart	0–1	0–2
2003–04	UEFA Cup	QUAL		Dinamo Tirana	3–1	4–0
		1R		Manchester City	0–1	2–3
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R		Narva Trans	0–1	2–0
		2R		BSC Young Boys	1–4	1–2
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	PO		Viktoria Plzeň	2–1	0–1
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	PO		Hull City	1–0	1–2
		Group		Legia Warsaw	1–0	0–1
		Group		Metalist Kharkiv	1–0	1–0
		Group		Trabzonspor	1–1	0–2

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  BEL Stefano Marzo 3 DF  JPN Ryuta Koike 5 MF  MLI Abdoulaye Diaby (on loan from Antwerp) 6 MF  CIV Lamine N'dao 7 MF  BEL Killian Overmeire (captain) 8 MF  SEN Abdou Diakhaté (on loan from Parma) 9 FW  BIH Anel Hajrić 14 MF  JPN Jun Amano 15 FW  GEO Giorgi Beridze (on loan from Gent) 17 MF  NED Guus Hupperts 19 MF  ROU Vlad Mitrea

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 DF  BEL Jimmy De Jonghe 22 FW  ITA Said Ahmed Said (on loan from Rio Ave) 26 DF  BEL Arno Monsecour 28 MF  BEL Amine Benchaib 29 MF  BEL Bob Straetman 30 GK  BEL Robin Mantel 33 GK  BEL Théo Defourny 35 DF  BEL Tracy Mpati 37 DF  BEL Jelle Van Damme 41 DF  CGO Francis N'Ganga 44 MF  BEL Seth De Witte

The following is a provisional list of notable players who played for Lokeren, sorted by nationality.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen.

• Lokeren at UEFA.com (archived)
• Lokeren (Archived 27 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine) at EUFO.de
• Lokeren at Weltfussball.de
• Lokeren at Football Squads.co.uk
• Lokeren at National Football Teams.com
• Lokeren at Football-Lineups.com