Club Brugge KV


Club Brugge Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging, commonly referred to as just Club Brugge, or Club Bruges commonly in English, is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges in Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.
One of the most decorated clubs in Belgian football, the club have been crowned Belgian league champions 16 times, second only to major rivals Anderlecht, and it shares the Jan Breydel Stadium with city rival Cercle Brugge, with whom they contest the Bruges derby.
Throughout its long history, Club Brugge has enjoyed much European football success, reaching two European finals and two European semi-finals. Club Brugge is the only Belgian club to have played the final of the European Cup so far, losing to Liverpool in the final of the 1978 season. They also lost in the 1976 UEFA Cup Final to the same opponents. Club Brugge holds the European record number of consecutive participations in the UEFA Europa League, the record number of Belgian Cups, and the record number of Belgian Super Cups.

History

In 1890, students from the Catholic school Broeders Xaverianen and the neutral school Koninklijk Atheneum joined together to form the Brugsche Football Club. The former students christened the club's founding by establishing the Latin motto 'mens sana in corpore sano'. A year later on 13 November 1891, the club was re-created under Brugsche FC, and this is now seen as the official foundation of the current Club Brugge In 1892, an official board was installed at the club to oversee all operations and team decisions. In 1895, the national athletics sports union was founded, predecessor of the later national football association, under the name UBSSA ; Brugsche FC was a founding member of the UBSSSA and as such took part in the first ever league campaign organized in Belgian football during the 1895–96 season. Financial difficulties the following year forced the club to leave the UBSSA and soon after, Football Club Brugeois were formed by breakaway club members. The two sides were reunited in 1897 under the French name of Football Club Brugeois; they did not take on the Flemish title Club Brugge until 1972.
In 1914, FC Brugeois reached their first ever Belgian Cup final, but lost 2–1 to Union SG. Six years later, the club claimed their first ever trophy, by winning the Belgian First Division during the 1919–20 season. They celebrated by changing their title to Royal FC Brugeois – with their regal status now reflected in their modern prefix KV, standing for Koninklijke Vereniging. Only eight years later though, the club was relegated to the Belgian Second Division for the first time in their history following a relegation play-off. Further lean times followed the relegation in 1928, as they spent much of the 1940s and 1950s in the second division of Belgian football.
Following the 1958–59 season, the club earned promotion back to the First Division and have not been relegated since. The club were able to add to their trophy cabinet in 1968, winning the first of their record 11 Belgian Cup titles for the first time after defeating Beerschot AC 7–6 in a penalty-shootout after a 1–1 draw.
The club enjoyed their most success under legendary Austrian manager Ernst Happel as he led the club to three straight league championships from 1975–76 to 1977–78 and a Belgian Cup victory in 1976–77. Happel also guided Club Brugge to their first ever European final, reaching the 1976 UEFA Cup Final. Over the two-legged final against English giants Liverpool, Club Brugge fell 3–4 on aggregate. Two years later, Brugge again met Liverpool in a European final, this time in the 1978 European Cup Final at Wembley, becoming the first Belgian club to reach the final of the competition. Brugge fell to a lone second-half goal from Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool won their second European Cup and third European trophy in succession. Following the cup final loss to Liverpool, Happel left Club Brugge and would lead Netherlands later that summer to the final of the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
On 25 November 1992, Brugge player Daniel Amokachi became the first goal scorer in the Champions League. He scored in a 1–0 win over CSKA Moscow.

Crest and colours

The club don a black and blue home kit as has been traditional through their history. Away from home they wear a red strip. The club's current kit supplier is Macron.

Stadium

The club's original home in the Sint-Andries district of Bruges was known as the Rattenplein since it was owned by the local fox terrier club, who used it for another imported English pastime: rat baiting. This non-UEFA affiliated 'sport' involved getting dogs to chase and kill rats. In 1911, the team moved to a new ground, called De Klokke, which was renamed the Albert Dyserynckstadion after the sudden death of Club Brugge chairman Albert Dyserynck.
Their current stadium, since 1975, was rebranded in honour of local butcher and revolutionary Jan Breydel in 1998. Breydel led a rising against the city's French overlords in the 1300s. The venue – which Club Brugge share with local rivals Cercle Brugge – was previously named the Olympiastadion.
In November 2016, the club broke ground on a new training complex at Westkapelle, including four training pitches and an additional training centre for the senior squad plus the U21 and U19 teams; all in addition to the already available sports complex Molenhoek.

Supporters

Club Brugge is the most supported club in Belgium. It has fans all over the country. Attendances are high. The Jan Breydel Stadium is almost sold out at every home game. Some of these fans are part of 62 supporter clubs in Belgium, which have more than 10,000 members. The "Supportersfederatie Club Brugge KV", founded in 1967, is recognized as the official supporters club of Club Brugge. The federation is made up of 60 recognized supporters' clubs and has an elected board to steer the operation in the right direction.
In tribute the fans, often dubbed the twelfth man in football, Club Brugge no longer assigns the number 12 to players. Club Brugge also has a TV show, CLUBtv, on the Telenet network since 21 July 2006. This twice weekly show features exclusive interviews with players, coaches and managers.

Mascot

The official mascot of Club Bruges is a bear, symbol of the city of Bruges. The history of the bear is related to a legend of the first Count of Flanders, Baldwin I of Flanders, who had fought and defeated a bear in his youth. Since the end of 2000, a second mascot, always a bear, travels along the edge of the field during home games for fans to call and encourage both their favorites. These two bears are called Belle and Bene. In 2010, a third bear named Bibi, made its appearance. He is described as the child of the first two mascots, and is oriented towards the young supporters.

Rivalries

Like many historic clubs, Club Brugge contests rivalries with other Belgian clubs, whether at local or regional level or nationally competitive.

Gent

At regional level, Club Brugge has maintained rivalry with Gent, a team in the neighboring province. The successes achieved by the club in the early 1970s, combined with very poor season performances by Gent in the same period, attracted many fans. Since the late 1990s, Gent again played a somewhat more leading role in Belgium, and matches between the two clubs were often spectacles. The game between the two teams is called "De Slag om Vlaanderen" or translated "The Battle of Flanders", this is because both teams have been the best teams in Flanders over the last 20 years.

Anderlecht

The rivalry between Club Brugge and Anderlecht has developed since the 1970s. At that time, the Brussels-based club and Club Brugge won most trophies between them, leaving little room for other Belgian teams. Matches between these two teams were often contested for the title of champion of Belgium. Three Belgian Cup finals were played between the two clubs, and they played seven Belgian Supercups. A match between these two sides is often called 'The Hate Game'. They are arguably the most heated fixtures in Belgian football together with clashes between the other two members of the Big Three - Anderlecht and Standard Liège.

Honours

Domestic

First-team squad

Other players under contract

Out on loan

Reserves and Club NXT (Youth Academy)

– Note: Reserve players are given a "B" squad number although they aren't used as shirt numbers. The squad numbers below are registered for the first team.

Retired numbers

12 – The 12th man
23 – François Sterchele, striker. Posthumous; Sterchele died in a single-person car accident on 8 May 2008.

Former players

Club captains

Technical staff

First-team staff

PositionName
Head Coach Philippe Clement
Assistant Coach Jonas Ivens
Assistant Coach Johan Van Rumst
Goalkeeping Coach Frederic De Boever
Physical Coach Eddie Rob
Physical Coach Dieter Deprez
Performance Specialist Rodrigo De Melo
Talent Coach Carl Hoefkens
Team Manager Dévy Rigaux
Team Doctor Bruno Vanhecke
Team Doctor Thomas Tampere
Physiotherapist David Bombeke
Physiotherapist Leen Van Damme
Physiotherapist Thomas De Jonghe
Masseur Ronny Werbrouck
Video Analyst John Bessell
Team Support Pascal Plovie
Team Support Michel Dierings

Reserves staff

PositionName
Head Coach T1 Rik De Mil
Assistant Coach T2 Tim Smolders
Physical Coach Dirk Laleman
Physiotherapist Dimitri Vastenavondt
Goalkeeping Coach Peter Mollez
Team Support Erwin Beyen
Team Support Kristoff Deryckere
Video Analyst Jelmer Platteeuw
Video Analyst Pieter Vanhoef

Club Academy staff

Head Coach U18 Maarten Martens
Head Coach U16 Timmy Simons

Board of Directors

PositionName
President Bart Verhaeghe
Board Member Jan Boone
Board Member Bart Coeman
Board Member Sam Sabbe
Board Member Peter Vanhecke
CEO Vincent Mannaert