Standard Liège

Football club infobox
clubname = Standard Liège


fullname = Royal Standard de Liège
nickname = "Les Rouches" (The Reds)
founded = 1900
ground = Stade Maurice Dufrasne
Liège
capacity = 30,030
chairman = flagicon|Switzerland Reto Stiffler
manager = flagicon|Romania László Bölöni
captain = flagicon|Belgium Steven Defour
league = Belgian First Division
season = 2007-08
position = Belgian First Division, 1st
pattern_la1=_whiteborder|pattern_b1=_whiterightsash|pattern_ra1=_whiteborder
leftarm1= FF0000|body1=FF0000|rightarm1= FF0000|shorts1=ffffff|socks1=FF0000
pattern_la2=_redborder|pattern_b2=_redrightsash|pattern_ra2=_redborder
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FF0000|socks2=FFFFFF

Royal Standard de Liège, usually referred to as Standard de Liège, is a Belgian football club from the city of Liège. They are the current champions of Belgium.

Club Culture

Standard is one of the most popular clubs in Belgium and historically the third most successful club in the Belgian First Division. The team is known as "Les Rouches" ("The Reds" with a Walloon accent) for the colour of their home shirts. Their home matches are played in the Stade Maurice Dufrasne, known as the "Chaudron de Sclessin", which has a capacity of 30,000. There are several notable supporter's groups, the four largest being "Hell-Side 81", "Ultras Inferno 96", "Kop Rouche", and "PHK" - each associated with different areas of the stadium.

History

The club was founded in 1900 by students at the College of Saint-Servais in Liege, though an administrative error records the date as 1898. Their inspiration for the name was Standard de Paris, a popular Parisian club at the time. A high point of the club's history was the 1982 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, in which they were beaten by FC Barcelona in the final. In 1982, a scandal was revealed implicating several players and trainers in an alleged plan to influence other Belgian clubs to "ease off" toward the end of the season, so that Standard might face Barcelona without injuries. As a result, the club received a heavy fine and - in order to pay it - had to sell its best players. The Belgian titles stopped coming, yet the club remained very popular across Belgium - even in the Flemish north. In 1996, the club absorbed R.F.C. Seraing. Standard appeared to see something of a resurgence in the 2005-2006 season, finishing the Belgian League in second place and earning themselves a place in the Champions League qualifiers. On April 20 2008 they won their first Belgian League title in 25 years with 3 games left, claiming an unbeaten record of 31 games. Standard defeated their archrivals Anderlecht in the decisive match, with 2 goals from Dieumerci Mbokani who had played for Anderlecht the previous season. The team was one of the youngest in the Belgian First Division. 32 Scouts from foreign teams were in the stadium with Marouane Fellaini as the main focus of their interests.Fact|date=April 2008. Fellaini later signed for Everton F.C. in a deal worth €20M in the dying minutes of the transfer deadline 2008. Standard made their second appearance in the Champions League qualifiers in 2008-09.

Honours

National

Belgian League: Champions (9): 1957/58, 1960/61, 1962/63, 1968/69, 1969/70, 1970/71, 1981/82, 1982/83, 2007/08: Runners-up (10): 1925/26, 1927/28, 1935/36, 1961/62, 1964/65, 1972/73, 1979/80, 1992/93, 1994/95, 2005/06

Belgian Cup: Champions (5): 1954, 1966, 1967, 1981, 1993 : Runners-up (9): 1965, 1972, 1973, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2007

Belgian League Cup: Champions (1): 1975

Belgian Supercup: Champions (3) 1981, 1983, 2008: Runners-up (2) 1993, 1982

International

"'UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: Runners-up (1) 1982

Current squad

Football squad player|no=8|nat=Belgium|name=Steven Defour|pos=MF(captain)Football squad player|no=10|nat=Brazil|name=Igor De Camargo|pos=FW(vice-captain)Football squad player|no=--|nat=Brazil|name=Digão|pos=DF(on loan from A.C. Milan)

Former players

Main|List of Royal Standard de Liège players—

Player stats

Appearances

upporters Awards

Man of the season (since 1997/98)

"Most regular Standardman of the season (votes after every match on the official website)"

Trophy Scharlaken UGH (since 2000/01)

"Standardman of the season presented by fan club "Les Rouches des Flandres" in cooperation with the official website"

European record

:"As of March 5, 2006:"

Competition	A	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Champions League	8	40	23	3	14	72	47
Cup Winners' Cup	6	38	20	5	13	71	51
UEFA Cup	11	58	24	16	18	85	74
Intertoto Cup	3	20	8	10	2	25	16

External links

* [http://www.standardliege.be/ Official site] fr icon / nl icon / en icon / de icon
* [http://www.uefa.com/footballEurope/Club=52165/domestic.html UEFA page] en icon
* [http://www.ui96.net Ultras Inferno 1996] fr icon
* [http://www.xtratime.org/forum/showthread.php?t=221725 Standard de Liege XtraTime Fanpage] en icon