KV Mechelen

KV Mechelen
Full name Yellow Red Koninklijke
Voetbalclub Mechelen
Nickname(s) The Yellow Reds,
Malinois, Malinwa, De Kakkers
Founded 1904
Ground Argosstadion Achter de Kazerne
Capacity 13,213
Chairman Johan Timmermans
Manager Aleksandar Janković
League Belgian Pro League
2013–14 Belgian Pro League, 13th

Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen[1] (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɛloː ˈrɛt ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈvudbɑlˌklʏp ˈmɛxələ(n)]) (often simply called KV Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkaː ˈveː ˈmɛxələ(n)]) or KV, or by their former French naming FC Malinois), is a Belgian professional football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp province. KV Mechelen plays in the Belgian Pro League. They have won four Belgian championships and one Belgian Cup, as well as the 1987-88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1988 European Super Cup. They collected all of their honours in the 1940s and in the 1980s.

KV Mechelen was founded in 1904 and, in 1921–22, promoted to the first division. After two successive relegation and promotion, they were back for good between 1928–29 and 1955–56. In the 1960s and 1970s, the club had several promotions and relegations between the first and second division. From 1983–84 to 1996–97, they had a successful first division spell, with a title and several 2nd and 3rd place finishes. During that period, they also won a European Cup Winners' Cup and they reached the same competition semi-finals as well as the European Cup quarter finals. KV Mechelen eventually declined in the late 1990s, though they had two more spells at the highest level from 1999–2000 to 2000–01 and in 2002–03. At the end of that season, the club did not receive their Belgian professional football license, and so they were relegated to the third division with a 9-point penalty. After two promotions in 2004–05 and in 2006–07, KV Mechelen has come back to the first division.

The club outfits are a striped yellow and red shirt with black shorts and socks. They play their home matches at the Argosstadion Achter de Kazerne, where Argos is their stadium sponsor and Achter de Kazerne means 'Behind the Barracks'. The stadium has been named so because there used to be barracks next to stadium. KV Mechelen fans have a long-standing rivalry with KRC Mechelen.

History

The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rival KRC Mechelen. The club had a first successful period in the 1940s. During World War II, in 1943, the club won their first domestic title. The second title came a few years later, in 1946, and in 1948 the club was successful again. After that, the club fell back. In 1954, they managed to finish third, only one point behind champions RSC Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 60s and the 70s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division.

The club enjoyed a spell of both domestic and European success in the period of 1987–1992. During these 5 seasons, Mechelen won one Belgian championship and one Belgian cup title. They also finished 2nd in the Belgian league twice and lost the Belgian cup final twice. After winning the domestic cup title in 1987, and hence qualifying for the European Cup Winners' Cup, they completed the extraordinary achievement of winning this tournament in 1988. Mechelen are the last Belgian team that has won a European trophy.

KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the finale of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to KRC Genk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi finale with a 2–2 draw and a 1–0 loss against KAA Gent. After a successful 2010 and four seasons for the yellow reds, coach Peter Maes decided to leave Malinwa and signed a four year contract with Sporting Lokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes. Marc Brys was coach of FC Den Bosch, a second division team in the Netherlands. After two seasons he was sacked and Harm Van Veldhoven was appointed for the 2012/13 season. Van Veldhoven also could not lead KV Mechelen to Play-Off 1, the clubs' recent unspoken ambition. He was fired in December 2013. At the end of the 2013/14 season KV Mechelen appointed Aleksandar Jankovíc as head coach.

Honours

Domestic

International

European record

As of December, 2008.
Competition A GP W D L GF GA
European Cup / UEFA Champions League 1 6 2 3 1 9 3
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 2 17 13 3 1 26 8
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League 4 14 3 5 6 14 15
UEFA Super Cup 1 2 1 0 1 3 1

A = appearances, GP = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.

Matches

Season Competition Round Country Club Score
1987–88 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R Romania Dinamo Bucureşti 1–0, 2-0
2R Scotland St. Mirren 0–0, 2-0
1/4 Soviet Union Dinamo Minsk 1–0, 1-1
1/2 Italy Atalanta 2–1, 2-1
F Netherlands Ajax 1–0
1988 UEFA Super Cup F Netherlands PSV 3–0, 0-1
1988–89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R Luxembourg Avenir Beggen 5–0, 3-1
2R Belgium Anderlecht 1–0, 2-0
1/4 Germany Eintracht Frankfurt 1–0, 0-0
1/2 Italy Sampdoria 2–1, 0-3
1989–90 European Cup 1R Norway Rosenborg 5–0, 0-0
2R Sweden Malmö FF 4–1, 0-0
1/4 Italy Milan 0–0, 0-2 (AET)
1990–91 UEFA Cup 1R Portugal Sporting CP 2–2, 0-1
1991–92 UEFA Cup 1R Greece PAOK 0–1, 1-1
1992–93 UEFA Cup 1R Sweden Örebro 2–1, 0-0
2R Netherlands Vitesse 0–1, 0-1
1993–94 UEFA Cup 1R Sweden IFK Norrköping 1–1 (AET), 1-0
2R Hungary MTK Hungária 5–0, 1-1
3R Italy Cagliari 1–3, 0-2

Summary of best results

(2 cups)

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

- quarter-finalists in 1990

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1):

- winners in 1988
- semi-finalists in 1989

UEFA Super Cup (1):

- winners in 1988

Current squad

As of 1 September 2014

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

No. Position Player
1 Belgium GK Wouter Biebauw
2 Belgium DF Laurens Paulussen
4 Belgium DF Seth de Witte
6 Trinidad and Tobago DF Sheldon Bateau
7 Belgium MF Tim Matthys
9 Serbia FW Dalibor Veselinović
10 Poland MF Rafal Wolski
11 Belgium MF Mats Rits
12 Belgium MF Steven De Petter
13 Belgium MF Wannes van Tricht
15 Bosnia and Herzegovina DF Edin Cocalić
17 Belgium FW Jens Naessens
19 Belgium DF Maxime Biset
No. Position Player
20 Belgium MF Joachim Van Damme
22 Belgium FW Lionel Makondi
23 Belgium GK Adrien Faidherbe
24 Belgium MF Glenn Claes
28 Belgium GK Anthony Swolfs
30 Belgium FW Jordi Vanlerberghe
32 Netherlands GK Mauro Minnaard
33 Serbia DF Miloš Kosanović
37 Serbia DF Ivan Obradović
44 Belgium MF Ibrahima Cissé
49 Luxembourg GK Anthony Moris
94 Algeria MF Sofiane Hanni
99 France FW Nicolas Verdier

For recent transfers, see List of Belgian football transfers summer 2013.

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player
10 Ghana MF Abdul-Yakuni Iddi (at OH Leuven)
16 Belgium FW Jason Adesanya (at Lommel)
17 Belgium FW Stevy Okitokandjo (at Roeselare)
18 Belgium MF David Destorme (at Waasland-Beveren)

Managers

Chairmen history

Date Name
1904-1906Belgium Théophile Delvaulx
1906-1951Belgium Francis Dessain
1951-1977Belgium Patrick Dessain
1977-1982Belgium Herman Candries
1982-1992Belgium John Cordier
Date Name
1992-1994Belgium Willy Dussart
1994-1997Belgium Jef De Graef
1997-2002Belgium Willy Van den Wijngaert
2003Belgium Mark Uytterhoeven
2003-Belgium Johan Timmermans

References

External links

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