View source for RFC Liège

{{Short description|Belgian football club}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{no footnotes|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox football club
| clubname = Liège
| fullname = Royal Football Club de Liège
| image = RFC Liège logo.svg
| upright = 0.6
| nickname = ''Les Sang et Marine'' <br>(The Blood and Marine)
| founded = {{start date and age|1892}}
| ground = [[:fr:Stade de Rocourt|Stade de Rocourt]], <br>[[Liège]]
| capacity = 3,500
| chairman = [[Jean-Paul Lacomble]]
| manager = [[Gaëtan Englebert]]
| league = [[Challenger Pro League]]
| current = 2025–26 Challenger Pro League 
| season  = [[2024–25 Challenger Pro League|2024–25]]
| position = Challenger Pro League, 9th of 16
| pattern_la1 = 
| pattern_b1 = _bluestripes2
| pattern_ra1 = 
| leftarm1 = FF0000
| body1 = FF0000
| rightarm1 = FF0000
| shorts1 = FFFFFF
| socks1 = FFFFFF
| pattern_la2 = 
| pattern_b2 = 
| pattern_ra2 = 
| leftarm2 = FFFFFF
| body2 = FFFFFF
| rightarm2 = FFFFFF
| shorts2 = FFFFFF
| socks2 = FFFFFF|
| website = {{URL|https://www.fcliege.be}}
}}

'''Royal Football Club de Liège''' (more commonly known as '''RFC Liège''') is a professional [[football (soccer)|football]] club based in [[Liège]], capital of [[Liège Province]], [[Belgium]]. The team currently play in  [[Challenger Pro League]], the second tier in Belgian football. Its [[matricule]] is 4, meaning that it was the fourth club to register with [[Royal Belgian Football Association|the country's national federation]] (founded 1895), and the club was the [[Belgian First Division#Past winners|first Belgian champion in history]] (5 Championships & 1 Cup). The 'philosophy' of the club is based on integration of local young players and on popular and faithful support. The club was also known for being 'homeless' between 1995 and 2015, but is now playing on its own ground in the [[Rocourt, Liège|Rocourt]] area of Liège.

In 1990, FC Liège precipitated a ground-breaking ruling for European football, when its refusal to release [[Jean-Marc Bosman]] after his contract ran out led to the [[Bosman ruling]], a [[European Court of Justice]] decision that caused major changes to the structure of European football.

== History ==
===Early history===
[[File:Historia del fútbol (p. 53).jpg|thumb|left|RFC Liège Club, the first Belgian Champion in 1896. [[Alfred Wahl]], {{lang|fr|La balle au pied : Histoire du football}} ({{p.|53}}), "[[Découvertes Gallimard]]" collection ({{vol.|83}}).]]
The city of Liège was introduced to football at the end of the 19th century by English workers, and the [[Parc de la Boverie]], which housed a velodrome, quickly became the home for the first football players in the region.<ref name=Solite>{{Cite web |url=https://belgiqueinsolite.com/blog/l-histoire-mouvementee-du-rfc-liege-le-premier-champion-de-belgique-de-football/ |title=L’histoire mouvementée du RFC Liege, le premier champion de Belgique de football |trans-title=The eventful history of RFC Liege, the first Belgian football champion |language=fr |website=belgiqueinsolite.com |date=1 May 2023 |accessdate=31 October 2024 }}</ref> The cyclists were also among the first to take an interest in this new sport, which allowed them to train during the [[winter]] months.<ref name=Solite/>

On 14 February 1892, Liège Football Club was founded by members of the Liège Cyclist's Union, who also organized the first edition of the "Liège-Bastogne-Liège", the oldest cycling race, on the same day.<ref name=Solite/><ref name=Fcliege>{{Cite web |url=https://fcliege.be/fr/historique/ |title=RFC Liège – Historique |trans-title=RFC Liège – History |language=fr |website=fcliege.be |accessdate=31 October 2024 }}</ref><ref name=Story>{{Cite web |url=https://www.football-the-story.com/rfc-liege |title=RFC Liège - L'histoire des légendes du football |trans-title=RFC Liège - The history of football legends |language=fr |website=www.football-the-story.com |accessdate=31 October 2024 |archive-date=7 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230807005920/https://www.football-the-story.com/rfc-liege |url-status=live }}</ref> The club's first official match took place in Brussels against a [[Brussels]] FA XI, and lost the match 4–0 on a 200 x 100-metre pitch.<ref name=Solite/> The club's registrations quickly increased, and the Liège team took its revenge against the Brussels FA on a new ground located in the gardens of the {{ill|Château de Sclessin|nl}}, this time wearing red and blue jerseys in homage to the [[London]]-based English club [[Dulwich Hamlet F.C.|Dulwich Hamlet]].<ref name=Solite/>

In 1895, Liège FC became an inaugural member of the [[Belgian Football Association]] as '''Football Club Liégeois''' (FC Liégeois), and the club won the subsequent inaugural [[Belgian Pro League|national championship of Belgium]] in [[1895–96 Belgian First Division|1895–96]], thus becoming first-ever Belgian Champion.<ref name=Story/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesb/belghist.html |title=Belgium - Final Tables 1895-2008 |publisher=[[RSSSF]] |date=10 May 2013 |accessdate=31 October 2024 |archive-date=13 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713200355/https://www.rsssf.org/tablesb/belghist.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the members of that first squad were Belgian, such as [[Fernand Defalle]], [[Lucien Londot]], [[Ernest Moreau de Melen]], [[Gérard Kleinermann]], but also had Englishmen, such as [[Treharne Reeves]], [[Samuel Hickson (footballer)|Samuel Hickson]], who was the [[Belgian Pro League top scorers|top scorer]] of the inaugural edition, and [[Harry Menzies]], who was the son of the club's president [[Ronald Menzies]].<ref name=Mag>{{cite web |url=https://www.magliarossonera.it/img189900/regine_1899.pdf |title=Belgio – 1899 Coupe de championnat |trans-title=Belgio – 1899 Championship Cup |language=fr |website=www.magliarossonera.it |accessdate=31 October 2024 }}</ref> Londot and Moreau de Melen went on to represent Belgium in the [[Football at the 1900 Summer Olympics|football tournament]] at the [[1900 Summer Olympics]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1900f.html |title=Games of the II. Olympiad |publisher=[[RSSSF]] |date=12 May 2022 |access-date=1 November 2024 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709122416/https://www.rsssf.org/tableso/ol1900f.html |url-status=live }}</ref> while Londot, Defalle, and Menzies went on to feature in the first-ever match of a [[Belgium national football team|Belgium national team]] at the [[1901 Coupe Vanden Abeele]] on 28 April.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesc/coupe-vdab.html#ed01 |title=1901 Coupe Vanden Abeele |publisher=[[RSSSF]] |date=15 October 2024 |accessdate=1 November 2024 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709122417/https://www.rsssf.org/tablesc/coupe-vdab.html#ed01 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Liège won back-to-back titles in [[1897–98 Belgian First Division|1898]] and [[1898–99 Belgian First Division|1899]], beating [[Club Brugge KV|FC Brugeois]] 6–3 in the two-legged final of 1899.<ref name=Mag/> During this period, Liégeois had an unbeaten run of 23 official matches that lasted over two years, between 28 February 1897 and 12 November 1899, coming to an end in a 3–5 loss to [[Royal Antwerp F.C.|Antwerp FC]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rafcmuseum.be/wedstrijdarchief/wedstrijdfiche.php?matchid=4373 |title=Antwerp FC 5-3 FC Liègeois |language=fr |website=www.rafcmuseum.be |accessdate=31 October 2024 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924145459/http://www.rafcmuseum.be/wedstrijdarchief/wedstrijdfiche.php?matchid=4373 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Liège FC eventually bowed to the superiority of the Brussels teams, which marked the beginning of the dark years since they were the first former Belgian champions to be relegated to the second division.<ref name=Story/>

In 1920 the prefix Royal was, when the club changed its name to '''Royal Football Club Liégeois''' (RFC Liégeois). Its name had been shortened to '''RFC Liège''' by the time of its consecutive championships in 1952 and 1953, the only clubs able to contest a dominating streak by [[R.S.C. Anderlecht|Anderlecht]], which won the three championships before (1949–1951) and after (1954–1956). RFC Liégeois reached the [[1963–64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup]] semi-finals, losing in three games against the eventual winner of the Cup, Spain's [[Real Zaragoza]]. Between 1965 and 1985, there were poor results, and the club survived with the help of its own tradition: young players coming from inside the club, and faithful supporters.

At the end of the 1980s, RFC Liège played in European competitions, facing such notable clubs as [[S.L. Benfica|Benfica]], [[Juventus FC|Juventus]], [[SK Rapid Wien|Rapid Vienna]], [[Hibernian F.C.|Hibernian]], [[Werder Bremen]] and [[Athletic Bilbao]]. The club won a [[Belgian Cup]] in 1990.

In 1990, the club forced French club [[USL Dunkerque|Dunkerque]] to pay a transfer fee for [[Jean-Marc Bosman]], although his contract had expired with the RFC Liège. Dunkerque refused to pay the fee, resulting in a series of lawsuits which led to the [[Bosman ruling]] in 1995. 

===Recent history===
In 1995, the club faced bankruptcy when its stadium, [[Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt]], was sold and demolished to build a movie theatre. To survive, the club joined with [[R.F.C. Tilleur-Saint-Nicolas]], based in the Liège suburb of [[Saint-Nicolas, Liège|Saint-Nicolas]], to become '''R. Tilleur F.C. de Liège'''.

The club went down from the [[Belgian First Division|First Division]] (which it had not left since 1945) to the [[Belgian Third Division|Third Division]]. The word Tilleur was dropped from the team name in 2000, returning to "RFC Liège". From 1995 to 2009, the club moved between the [[Belgian Second Division|Second]] and Third Divisions, with two Third Division titles in 1996 and 2008.

In 2008–09, the club played in the Second Division, but suffered back-to-back relegations, dropping to the [[Belgian Fourth Division|Fourth Division]] in April 2011. During the 2010–11 season, RFC Liège played its 3000th match and scored its 5000th goal at national level.<ref name=Fcliege/>

In the 2015–16 season, RFC Liège plays in [[Belgian Third Division B|Division 3]]. RFC Liège holds the Belgian record for the number of seasons played at national level with 117 seasons between 1896 and 2019, having played a total of 67 seasons in D1, including 50 consecutive seasons (1950–1995), 28 seasons in [[Belgian Second Division|D2]], 11 seasons in D3, and 2 seasons in D4.<ref name=Fcliege/> Liège FC still is the only club that has played all its seasons (117 as of 2019–20) at a national level, versus county or local levels, having won a total of five [[Belgian First Division|First Division]] championships: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1952 and 1953, thus being the 6th most successful (active) Belgian club, only behind [[K. Beerschot V.A.C.|Beerschot]] (7), [[Standard Liège|Standard]] (10), [[Royale Union Saint-Gilloise|Union Saint-Gilloise]] (11), [[Club Brugge KV|FC Bruges]] (13), and [[R.S.C. Anderlecht|Anderlecht]] (31).<ref name=Fcliege/>

In the 2022–23 season, RFC Liège confirmed promotion to [[Challenger Pro League]] from 2023–24 after draw 0–0 at Tienen on Matchweek 35. On 14 May 2023, the club finished runner-up of Belgian National Division 1 in 2022–23 season.

== Stadium ==
Starting in 1921, RFC Liège played in [[Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt]], in the suburban municipality of [[Rocourt, Liège|Rocourt]]. Rocourt became part of the city of Liège in 1977. The stadium was sold, and demolished, in 1995, earning RFC Liège the nickname 'homeless'.

Between 1995 and 2015, RFC Liège played in [[Saint-Nicolas, Liège|Tilleur]] (1995–2000), [[Seraing]] (2000–2004), [[Ans, Belgium|Ans]] (2004–2008), and Seraing again (Pairay Stadium, 2008–2015).

In 2015 the club returned to Rocourt, playing its home matches in the new Stade de Rocourt.

== Current squad ==
{{Updated|21 June 2025<ref>{{cite web |url=https://fcliege.be/fr/equipe_1e/ |title=RFC Liège – Équipe première |website=fcliege.be |access-date=8 April 2025}}</ref>}}
{{fs start}}
{{fs player |no=1 |nat=BEL|pos=GK|name=[[Kevin Debaty]]}}
{{fs player |no=2 |nat=FRA|pos=MF|name=Jérémie Lioka}}
{{fs player |no=4 |nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=Jordan Bustin}}
{{fs player |no=5 |nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=[[Pierre-Yves Ngawa]]}}
{{fs player |no=7 |nat=BEL|pos=FW|name=Benoît Bruggeman}}
{{fs player |no=8 |nat=FRA|pos=MF|name=[[Théo Pierrot]]}}
{{fs player |no=9 |nat=BEL|pos=FW|name=[[Zakaria Atteri]]}}
{{fs player |no=10|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=[[Alessandro Albanese]]}}
{{fs player |no=11|nat=FRA|pos=FW|name=Alexis Lefevbre}}
{{fs player |no=12|nat=BEL|pos=GK|name=[[Antoine Lejoly]]}}
{{fs player |no=13|nat=BEL|pos=FW|name=[[Damien Mouchamps]]}}
{{fs player |no=14|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=Lucca Lucker}}
{{fs mid}}
{{fs player |no=15|nat=TUR|pos=MF|name=Abian Arslan}}
{{fs player |no=17|nat=FRA|pos=MF|name=Flavio Da Silva}}
{{fs player |no=19|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=[[Benjamin Lambot]]}}
{{fs player |no=21|nat=BEL|pos=FW|name=Alessio Cascio}}
{{fs player |no=22|nat=BEL|pos=GK|name=Joshua Mpenza}}
{{fs player |no=23|nat=CGO|pos=FW|name=[[Yannick Loemba]]}}
{{fs player |no=24|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=[[Stefano Marzo]]}}
{{fs player |no=25|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=Jonathan D'Ostilio|other=[[Captain (association football)|captain]]}}
{{fs player |no=26|nat=BEL|pos=FW|name=Maxime Cavelier}}
{{fs player |no=27|nat=BEL|pos=DF|name=Liam Moreau}}
{{fs end}}

==Former players==

* {{flagicon|FRA}} [[Tarik Kharif]]

== Staff ==
'''Head coach''': {{flagicon|Belgium}} [[Gaëtan Englebert]] <br/>
'''Assistant coach''': {{flagicon|Belgium}} [[Eric Deflandre]]<br/>
'''Goalkeeper coach''': {{flagicon|Belgium}} [[Pierre Drouguet]]

== Honours ==
===League===
*'''[[Belgian First Division A|Belgian First Division]]'''
**'''Champions (5):''' [[1895–96 Belgian First Division|1895–96]], [[1897–98 Belgian First Division|1897–98]], [[1898–99 Belgian First Division|1898–99]], [[1951–52 Belgian First Division|1951–52]], [[1952–53 Belgian First Division|1952–53]] 
**Runners-up: [[1896–97 Belgian First Division|1896–97]], [[1958–59 Belgian First Division|1958–59]], [[1960–61 Belgian First Division|1960–61]]
*'''[[Belgian Second Division]]'''
**'''Winners:''' 1911–12, 1922–23, 1943–44
*'''[[Belgian Third Division]]'''
**'''Winners:''' 1942–43, 1995–96, 2006–07
*'''[[Belgian Fourth Division D|Belgian Fourth Division]]'''
**'''Winners:''' 2014–15
*'''[[Belgian National Division 1]]'''
**'''Runner-up:''' 2022–23

===Cups===
*'''[[Belgian Cup]]'''
**'''Winners:''' 1989–90
**Runners-up: 1986–87
*'''[[Belgian League Cup]]'''
**'''Winners:''' 1986
**Runners-up: 1973

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
<!---{{Challenger Pro League teamlist}}--->
{{Liège |state=collapsed}}
{{Belgian Pro League}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liege, RFC}}
[[Category:RFC Liège| ]]
[[Category:Association football clubs established in 1892]]
[[Category:Football clubs in Belgium]]
[[Category:1892 establishments in Belgium]]
[[Category:Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage]]
[[Category:Sport in Liège|RFC Liège]]
[[Category:Belgian Pro League clubs]]
[[Category:Seraing]]