R. Charleroi S.C.

Charleroi

Full name	Royal Charleroi Sporting Club
Nickname(s)	Les Zèbres (The Zebras), Les Carolos
Founded	1904
Ground	Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi (Capacity: 25,000[1])
Chairman	Abbas Bayat
Manager	Jos Daerden
League	Belgian Second Division
2010-2011	Belgian Pro League, 16th (relegated)
Home colours Away colours

Sporting du Pays de Charleroi (often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, or by their nickname Les Zèbres) is a Belgian football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League and their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football has started in the 1985–86 season. Charleroi was founded in 1904 and they first reached the first division in 1947–48. Their highest finish was runner-up in the 1968–69 season. They also reached twice the Belgian Cup final, losing in 1977-78 to Beveren and in 1992-93 to Standard Liège.

Sporting Charleroi have a long-standing rivalry with city other club ROC de Charleroi-Marchienne, currently playing in the third division. Charleroi play their home matches at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, which was refurbished for the UEFA Euro 2000. The stadium hosted 3 group stage games in the Euro 2000 among which the 1-0 victory of England against Germany. Charleroi have been recruiting several French players in recent years, including Michaël Ciani, Cyril Théréau and goalkeeper Bertrand Laquait.

History

Charleroi Sporting Club was founded in 1904 and they received the matricule n°22 following their registration to the Royal Belgian Football Association on November 24, 1907. Twenty years after their foundation, they qualified to play in the Promotion (then the second level in Belgian football) and in 1929, the club changed its name to Royal Charleroi Sporting Club. Rivals from Olympic Charleroi were playing in the first division in the late 1930s and the 1940s, while Sporting Charleroi was playing one level down, until they promoted in 1947. In 1949, Sporting Charleroi finished 4th (2 points behind Standard Liège) whereas Olympic Charleroi was 14th. But Olympic took the lead again until 1955 and their relegation to the second division. At the end of the 1956–57 season, Olympic Charleroi had promoted to the first division but Sporting Charleroi finished last in the first division and was thus relegated to the second division. A spell of 9 seasons in the second division followed and in 1966–67 Sporting Charleroi was back at the top level. They finished at the second place in 1968-69 5 points behind Standard Liège but within two years they were relegated again.

In 1974 the first division was changing from 16 to 20 teams and Sporting Charleroi was chosen to play at the top level. Olympic Charleroi promoted too as they had won the second division right before but they remained at the top level for just one season. Sporting underwent a new relegation in 1979–80 (17th on 18) but was back five years later. Their best result since then in the first division is a 4th place in 1993–94. In September 2005, the G-14 took FIFA to court over the 8 month injury incurred by Abdelmajid Oulmers whilst on international duty with Morocco.

Colours and badge

The colours of Charleroi are black and white with a shirt generally striped, which lead to the team being nicknamed The Zebras. In the 2005-06 season the team's away kit was pink.

Stadium

Main article: Stade du Pays de Charleroi

The actual ground was baptized in 1939 with a match Sporting-Union du Centre and it was located near the coal mine named Mambourg. In 1985 the stadium was slightly modernized as the club had qualified for the first division. It was then heavily renewed in the late 1990s in view of the 2000 European Football Championship. The name changed on May 24, 1999 from Stade du Mambourg to Stade du Pays de Charleroi. During the tournament, the full capacity of the stadium was up to 30,000 seats. The Stade du Pays de Charleroi hosted notably the match between Germany and England. The highest stand was eventually reduced and the capacity is now 25,000.

Honours

• Belgian First Division:
  • Runners-up (1): 1968-69
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (1): 1946-47
  • Runners-up (1): 1965-66
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (1): 1985
• Belgian Cup:
  • Runners-up (2): 1977-78, 1992–93

European record

As of December, 2008.

Competition	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
UEFA Cup	2	6	4	0	2	10	8
Intertoto Cup	3	10	3	3	4	11	11

A = appearances, B = matches played, C = won, D = drawn, E = lost, F = goals for, G = goals against.

Season	Competition	Round		Club	Home	Away
1969-70	UEFA Cup	1R		NK Zagreb	2-1	3-1
1969-70	UEFA Cup	2R		FC Rouen	3-1	0-2
1994-95	UEFA Cup	1R		Rapid Bucureşti	2-1	0-2
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10		Beitar Jerusalem		1-0
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10		Bursaspor	0-2
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10		FC Košice		2-3
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10		Wimbledon FC	3-0
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4		Silkeborg IF	2-4
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4		Conwy United FC		0-0
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4		Zaglebie Lubin	0-0
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4		SV Ried		3-1
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R		Tampere United	0-0	0-1

Players

Current squad

As of 2 July, 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Mourad Satli 3 DF Elvedin Džinič 4 DF Christopher Verbist 5 DF Martos 6 DF Matan Ohayon 7 FW Hermanni Vuorinen 9 MF Thibaut Delplanck 10 MF Herve Kage 12 GK Parfait Mandanda 13 FW Ivan Yagan 14 MF Samuel Fabris 15 GK Adrien Faidherbe 16 GK Stéphane Coqu 17 FW Matija Smrekar

No. Position Player 18 FW Moussa Gueye 21 DF Mijuško Bojović 23 GK Cyprien Baguette 24 MF Onur Kaya 25 MF Abraham Kudemor 27 MF Ederson 29 MF Viktor Bopp 30 DF Jean-Christophe Vergerolle 80 MF Kenneth Houdret 99 MF Pedro FW Harlem Gnohéré MF Leandro Almeida MF Danijel Miličević

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player

For recent transfers, see List of Belgian football transfers summer 2009.

Noted players

Belgium Philippe Albert Roberto Bisconti Toni Brogno Laurent Ciman Alexandre Czerniatynski Frank Defays Philippe Desmet Grégory Dufer Raymond Mommens Olivier Renard Enzo Scifo Tim Smolders François Sterchele Olivier Suray René Thirifays Daniel Van Buyten Leo Van Der Elst Eric Van Meir Algeria Adlène Guedioura Nasreddine Kraouche Argentina Cristian Leiva Australia Graham Arnold Eddie Krncevic Bosnia and Herzegovina Enver Hadziabdic Brazil Dante Eduardo Burkina Faso Badou Kere Cameroon Jean-Jacques Missé-Missé

Chile Osvaldo Hurtado Francisco Ugarte Croatia Dražen Brnčić Nikola Jerkan Marijan Mrmić England Carl Airey (1986) 3 games 0 goals Laurie Cunningham (1987) 1 game 0 goals [[Michael Peter Harrison(1985–87) 49 apps 1 goal John McGinlay (1982–84) [1] Kevin Pugh (1985–1992) 174 games 8 goals France Fabien Camus Sébastien Chabaud Michaël Ciani Bertrand Laquait Laurent Macquet Loris Reina Cyril Théréau Guinea Ousmane Bangoura Kanfory Sylla Hungary Imre Garaba Miklós Lendvai Zsolt Petry István Pisont Iran Hossein Sadaghiani Dariush Yazdani Alireza Emamifar Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Mehrdad Minavand

Ireland Gary Waddock (1987–89) 40 games 1 goal Luxembourg Nico Braun Macedonia Čedomir Janevski Morocco Majid Oulmers Netherlands Chris Dekker Nigeria Joseph Akpala Victor Ikpeba Poland Mirosław Justek Kazimierz Kmiecik Romania Rodion Cămătaru Serbia Ranko Stojic Sierra Leone Ibrahim Kargbo Mustapha Sama Sweden Lars Eriksson Pär Zetterberg Togo Adékambi Olufadé Ukraine Serhiy Serebrennikov

Managers

• Aimé Anthuenis (1987–89)
• Georges Leekens (1994–95)
• Robert Waseige (1992–94, 1997–2000 and 2003–04)
• Jacky Mathijssen (2004–07 and 2010)
• Philippe Vande Walle (2007)
• Thierry Siquet (2007–08)
• John Collins (2008–09)
• Stéphane Demol (2009)
• Tommy Craig (2009–10)
• Jacky Mathijssen (2009)
• Stéphane Demol (2009)
• Jos Daerden (2011)

References

1. ^ "Stade". http://www.sporting-charleroi.be/club-stade.php. 

External links

• (French) Official Website
• (English) Charleroi SC at UEFA.com
• Charleroi SC at EUFO.DE
• Charleroi SC at Weltfussball.de
• Charleroi SC at Playerhistory.com
• Charleroi SC at Transfermarkt.de
• Charleroi SC at Football Squads.com
• Charleroi SC at National Football Teams.com
• Charleroi SC at Football-Lineups.com