R.F.C. Tournai

Predecessors (1903–2002)

The senior of the two predecessor clubs, Union Sportive Tournaisienne, was founded in Tournai on 17 April 1903, probably from the union of two unaffiliated local sides, Student Club and Athletic Club, and was admitted to the Royal Belgian Football Association as a "club débutant" on 17 November 1903. It first played in the national series in the 1909–10 season and was assigned matricule 26 when the system was introduced in December 1926; the royal title followed on 22 April 1928, and the club took the name Royale Union Sportive Tournaisienne. The Union's only top-flight season was 1951–52, in which it finished bottom of the Belgian First Division with three wins and 12 points. In 1997, RUS Tournaisienne merged with Sporting Club de Pecq (matricule 8786, founded 1981), retaining matricule 26. The Racing Club Tournaisien was founded in 1908 by two students, Félix Delannay and Georges Syoen, with a Catholic identity in contrast to the Union's more liberal and anticlerical tradition; the two clubs maintained a sustained rivalry over the next nine decades. The Racing Club reached the national series in 1926 and was assigned matricule 36; it received the royal title in 1933. Its single greatest achievement, and the club's most enduring legacy, was winning the 1955–56 Belgian Cup while playing in the Belgian Second Division—a feat not subsequently matched until KV Mechelen in 2019. By the end of the 1990s, both clubs were in financial difficulty.…

Belgian Cup Winners: 1955–56 (as Royal Racing Club Tournaisien) Belgian Promotion (historic fourth tier) Champions: 2004–05