Lierse Kempenzonen
Wikipedia - Lierse Kempenzonen
Lierse Kempenzonen is a Belgian association football club located in Lier, in the province of Antwerp. The club, founded in 1943 as Oosterzonen in Oosterwijk, was relocated to Lier following the bankruptcy of Lierse in 2018. They compete in the Belgian First Division B, the second tier of Belgian football.
History
The club was founded in 1943 as FC Oosterzonen from a commune within Westerlo. It started in the Belgian provincial leagues where it hovered between the various levels, most of the times playing at the 6th or 7th level of the Belgian football pyramid. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, the club won the title three seasons in a row to promote for the first time in its history to the national levels of football. In the Belgian Fourth Division, the club avoided relegation for a few seasons, before managing another promotion in the 2012–13 season into the Belgian Third Division. Following the reform of Belgian football in 2016, the team started playing in the Belgian First Amateur Division.
In May 2018, it was announced that the club would relocate to Lier, as it merged with the old board of Lierse (a club which had gone bankrupt just a few weeks before) to form a new club called Lierse Kempenzonen. The new team continued with the old logo of Lierse and started playing in the Herman Vanderpoortenstadion in Lier.
Lierse Kempenzonen v minulosti vyhral niekoľko domácich titulov vrátane majstrovských titulov v rokoch 1932, 1942 a 1960. Klub sa zúčastnil aj európskych súťaží, ako je Pohár víťazov pohárov UEFA.
V súčasnosti hrá Lierse Kempenzonen v belgickom druhom stupni, Challenger Pro League. Klub je známy svojou oddanou fanúšikovskou základňou a snaží sa o návrat do najvyššej belgickej súťaže.