RSD Jette (Belgium)

Royal SCUP Dieleghem Jette is an amateur football club from the Brussels district of Jette in the Belgian capital, who were formed in 1922 after several small local clubs, La Jettoise, Excelsior Jette, Saint-Anne Jette, Dieleghem Jette, Union et Progress Jette and Sporting Club Jette joined forces.

The club started out competing in the higher echelons of Brabant provincial football before the 1930s saw the club reach the national third level on a few occasions, interspersed with several demotions back to regional competition.

This pattern continued up until football was abandoned for the Second World War. Once peace was restored, Jette remained in provincial competition. In 1951, the club title was expanded to Royal Sporting Club Union & Progress Jette.

After major reforms to the Belgian football league system, a fourth national Vierde Klasse was created in 1952, with Jette becoming a member. A further promotion to the Derde Klasse Third Division was achieved in 1954-55.

The 1958-59 season saw Jette relegated back to the third level, before they were demoted once again the following season as the club found themselves back in the Eerste Provinciale, from where they fought back to fourth-tier national football in 1963-64.

The club consolidated and maintained its position before they were relegated in 1975-76. However, Jette soon regathered and won their national place back two seasons later. The team’s spell would last until the completion of the 1979-80 campaign before they returned to the provincial ranks.

In 1990-91, Jette won promotion to the fourth level of Belgian football before being relegated in 1993-94. A further demotion soon followed as the club entered the 2 Provinciale. In 2002, Jette merged with Etoile Dieleghem as the club took its present title.

SCUP Jette ended the 2001-02 season in a promotion place as the club rose to the first provincial level. In 2003-04, the club had another taste of national football in Division 3 amateur before dropping back to regional football twelve months later.

By 2008-09, Jette were performing in the regional second-level 2 Provinciale in Serie C. The club won the championship in 2015-16 to return to the top level of Brabant football, which was followed up with a mid-table finish.

Jette finished as league runners-up in 2017-18 to go up to the fifth-tier Third Amateur Division C, where they consolidated in eleventh place. In 2019-20, Jette were in second place when the season ended early because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Belgian FA deemed that placings at the time should stand, meaning promotion for Jette under manager René Kruys. The side finished tenth in Belgian Division 2 ACFF in 2021-22, in which Sébastien Conté managed the team. The side had a narrow escape with relegation twelve months later, by which time Michel Delph had been appointed team boss.

The performance was matched in 2023-24, before the following season saw a tenth-place finish in the fourth-tier division.

RSD Jette will play in the Belgian Division 2 in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Saturday 19th August 2017

All had been going exactly to plan on my opening day in Brussels. I’d got there 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 for 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 halfway 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.