BX Brussels (Belgium)

BX Brussels is an amateur football club who were formed on March 18^th 1986 as FC Bleid in the Belgian capital of Brussels. The clubs home ground in Bleid was under construction so the club played its early years in Saint-Mard and competing in the Brabant 4ème Provinciale.

In the 1993-94 season the club won their divisional title and progressed to the third level provincial league. A local entrepreneur Renato Costantini accepted the role of club President on the condition that the club played in Bleid.

The ground construction was completed in 1996 as Costantini set out a target of top flight provincial football for the club. In 1998-99 the club lifted a divisional crown in 3ème Provinciale to win their second promotion.

The 2001-02 campaign saw the President’s dream come true as another league championship was collected to elevate the team to the Brabant 1ème Provinciale. In 2003-04 the team won the provincial title to reach the national Fourth Division Vierde Klasse D.

Bleid continued to press for further promotions and came very close to achieving their aim on three occasions as they qualified for the play-off rounds. In 2008-09 the club won their promotion to the third tier Derde Klasse B.

The club changed their title to FC Bleid-Gaume in an attempt to gather support from the Gaume region as the club began to struggle with financial worries. The club put their license up for sale to look for a solution as they played their home games at Heysel II.

It appeared that a deal had been struck by supporters of extinct club RWD Molenbeek who had registered a new club RWDM 03. They looked to buy the FC Bleid-Gaume license and move it to the Edmond Machtens Stadion under the Molenbeek title.

The club played out the 2012-13 season at Edmond Machtens Stadion but under the name of FC Bleid-Gaume. However, things didn’t work out as expected as RWDM 2003 opted to continue playing in 4ème Provinciale. Bleid-Gaume were relegated to the fourth tier.

In March 2013 Belgian international star Vincent Kompany invested in FC Bleid-Game with the intention of making the club a sporting and social project. From the 2013-14 season the club played as BX Brussels and changed their red and black colours to white and black as the team moved to Gemeentelijk Stadion Van Jette.

Kompany’s former teammate Junior Ngalula was appointed as the sports director at the club.  The change of identity didn’t bring any immediate luck as the team were relegated for a second successive season back down to the 1ème Provinciale.

The slide continued in 2014-15 as the club were relegated to the second provincial Brabant league. BX Brussels fought back by winning the 2ème Provinciale Série A ACFF/BXL title in 2016-17.

BX Brussels ended the Brabant 1ère Provinciale Série ACFF/BXL 2017-18 season in twelfth position before improving to fifth the following campaign and then fourth in 2019-20 before the season was ended prematurely owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BX Brussels will play in Brabant 1ère Provinciale Série ACFF/BXL in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Saturday 19^th August 2017

All had been going exactly to plan on my opening day in Brussels. I’d got their earlier than expected, checked into my hotel, got a decent room and visited three pretty reasonable football grounds. Something had to give!

Sure enough, I’d seen inside the venue of FC Ganshoren; albeit from outside the gates before I decided to walk through Marais de Jette-Ganshoren. The country park had lovely paths and scenery. It was difficult to comprehend that I was on the edge of a capital city.

A very dark cloud was rapidly approaching. It began to rain very hard just as I’d left an area covered by trees. I tried to take the best shelter I could as it absolutely hammered down. Streams were running down the paths and I was getting drenched.

There was nothing I could do apart from sheltering as well as I could and waiting for the rain to stop to a sensible level; which took at least fifteen minutes. This wasn’t ideal as I’d arranged to meet a new Facebook friend, Anthony Vargas at Stade Roi Baudouin.

I sent him a message that I was running a few minutes late as I continued through the park and past the walls of Stade Communal de Jette before walking up the hill along Avenue de l’Exposition to the entrance, which was thankfully open.

What a treat I was in store of as I went through the gates. This was a classic old school venue that had been built into the hill. One side had a large bank of open terracing, with a smallish covered stand at the rear on the half way line.

Offices, a clubhouse and changing rooms were behind the goal at the road end. They were set back behind the pitch, while the final two sides had a little open flat standing. I took plenty of time getting the very best snaps I could of the fantastic terracing.

Anthony was at the stadium sorting the tickets out as I went around the corner and took the number 84 bus to the game; even managing to stay on board for one stop too many! It all had been well worth it.