K.R.C. Genk

Racing Genk

Full name	Koninklijke Racing Club Genk
Founded	1923 (creation) July 1, 1988 (merge)
Ground	Cristal Arena, Genk (Capacity: 24,000)
Chairman	Harry Lemmens
Manager	Franky Vercauteren
League	Belgian Pro League
2009-10	Belgian Pro League, 11th
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Koninklijke Racing Club Genk, usually referred to as Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and they have won 2 Belgian champion titles in 1998-99 and in 2001-02 as well as 3 Belgian Cups, most recently in 2008-09. They are one of the 5 Belgian clubs to have reached the UEFA Champions League group stage, with Lierse, Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Standard Liège. They did so in the 2002-03 season, and finished 4th of their group with 4 points.

The club formed in 1988 by the merger of Waterschei Thor with KFC Winterslag, from which it took over the matricule number. It has been one of the most successful clubs in Belgium since the late 1990s and so they regularly qualify for European competitions. The club has been playing in the first division since the 1996-97 season. They play their home matches in the Cristal Arena. Their main outfit is blue and white.

History

KFC Winterslag history (1923--1988)

The club FC Winterslag was founded in 1923 and they became that year a member of the Belgian Football Association that gave it the matricule number 322. On its 35th anniversary the club added the Royal prefix to their name to become KFC Winterslag. In 1972-73 Winterslag reached the second division and they eventually qualified for the Belgian First Division 1974-75 after finishing second in the second division final round. They had taken advantage of the increase in the number of first division clubs (from 16 to 20). The club ended the season in last place but won the second division right after.

KFC Winterslag reached the 5th place in 1981 but two seasons later it was relegated to the second stage after a disappointing last place. That season Standard Liège won the championship on bribery in a match against the club of Waterschei Thor that would eventually merge with the matricule number 322. Following a spell of four seasons in the second division, Winterslag found its place again in the first division by winning the 1987 final round, one point ahead of Tongeren. It finished 15th on 18 but at the end of the season, the club merged with the neighbour club of Waterschei Thor which was playing in the second division since its relegation in 1986.

K Waterschei SV Thor Genk

K Waterschei SV Thor Genk was created in 1919 as Waterschei's Sport Vereeniging Thor with Thor being the acronym of Tot Herstel Onzer Rechten (English: To recover our rights). It registered with the FA only in 1925 and received matricule number n°533. The club enjoyed a spell in the first division in the late 1950s to the early 1960s and again from 1978 to 1986. After two seasons in the second division, K. Waterschei S.V. Thor Genk merged with K.F.C. Winterslag to form K.R.C. Genk.

During the 1982-83 season, the match between Standard Liège-Waterschei had been fixed and Standard eventually won the championship. Waterschei won the Belgian Cup twice (1980 and 1982). Quite remarkably, the latter victory led to Waterschei reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in the 1982-83 season. After defeating PSG in the quarter-finals, Waterschei lost the first leg of the semi-final 5 - 1 at Pittodrie, home of the eventual winners, Aberdeen F.C. A 1-0 victory in Waterschei, courtesy of Eddy Voordeckers, could not reverse the position. They then merged with Winterslag in 1988 to form the current club.

K.R.C. Genk history (1988 - present)

The new club was named K.R.C. Genk and as it kept the Winterslag ranking, it began in the first division but finished last. The next year Genk managed to win the final round in 2nd division and then played 4 seasons in the first division. In 1995 the club hired Aimé Anthuenis a coach and Racing finished second and skipped the final round as two first division teams merged (Seraing and Standard Liège). After an eighth place in 1997, the club had a good 1997-98 season with a cup win and a second place in the championship. In its first European season, Racing Genk eliminated successively Apolonia and MSV Duisburg but it lost to RCD Mallorca in the round of 16 after two draws (1-1 on aggregate) in the last Cup Winners' Cup ever. The season was ended well as Genk won its first Belgian championship in May, with manager Aimé Anthuenis then moving to Anderlecht.

Genk played in the UEFA Champions League in 1999-2000 but lost in the second qualifying round to NK Maribor. The season was salvaged by winning the Belgian Cup again, this time to Standard, but Genk ended the championship in 9th place. It finished 11th in the following season and lost in the UEFA Cup second round to Werder Bremen after a win against FC Zürich. After this poor spell, Genk managed to win the championship once more in the 2001-2002 season. In 2002-2003, they reached the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history. Although they came 4th, they impressed fans with draws against Real Madrid, AS Roma and AEK Athens.

In the 2006-07 season, Genk finished second to Anderlecht. The Limburgians had been ahead almost the entire season but were pipped at the post by Anderlecht after losing at Germinal Beerschot. The 2007-08 season was a disaster, as Genk didn't even manage to finish in the top half of the division, ending in a disappointing tenth.

At the end of the season, Genk restated their ambition, signing Ronny Vangeneugden as their new head coach and bringing in several new players, including midfielder Dániel Tőzsér from AEK Athens, defender João Carlos from Lokeren and attacker Adam Nemec from MŠK Žilina. On July 1 2008, Genk celebrated its 20th anniversary. The club was again disappointed to finish in 8th place at the end of the season, but won the play-off and led to European qualification.

Liverpool Alliance

Liverpool are on the verge of tying up a partnership with Belgian club Racing Genk. The Daily Mail says the agreement will enable Reds boss Rafa Benitez to send his fringe players to gain experience in a senior league. He will also be able to take advantage of Belgium’s more relaxed laws by placing non-European Union signings with Genk until they qualify for UK work permits.

Genk director Dirk Degraen said: "Liverpool have a very large squad and too many of their youngsters don’t get enough playing time. "We can offer a solution and the players they provide will strengthen our team. Besides, Liverpool are keen to bring in talented youngsters from South America and Africa. They often come up against Britain’s more stringent work permit laws. But they can instead park these players with us, and see them mature."

Supporters

KRC Genk may count on a loyal group of 20.000 supporters, 18.000 of these are subscripted. The fanatic fanbase is 'Tribune Zuid' (South Stand) in the southern end of the stadium comprising blocks SS-TT-UU. In its first season there were some issues about 14 fans who have been denied access to Tribune Zuid because they were convicted for intrusions on Belgiums 'voetbalwet' (= law of soccer).

Honours

• Belgian First Division:
  • Winners (2): 1998-99, 2001-02
  • Runners-up (2): 1997-98, 2006-07
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (1): 1975-76
  • Runners-up (2): 1986-87, 1995-96
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (2): 1987, 1990
  • Runners-up (1): 1974
• Belgian Cup:
  • Winners (3): 1997-98, 1999-00, 2008-09

European Cup History

As of August, 2010.

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

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away
1997	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 5		B36 Tórshavn		5-0
				Stabæk IF	4-3
				FC Dynamo Moscow		2-3
				Panachaiki	4-2
1998-99	Cup Winners' Cup	QUAL		Apolonia Fier	4-0	5-1
		1R		MSV Duisburg	5-0	1-1
		2R		Real Mallorca	1-1	0-0
1999-00	Champions League	2QR		NK Maribor	3-0	1-5
2000-01	UEFA Cup	1R		FC Zürich	2-0	2-1
		2R		Werder Bremen	2-5	1-4
2002-03	Champions League	3QR		Sparta Praha	2-0	2-4
		Group C - Preliminary		AEK Athens	0-0	1-1
				Real Madrid	1-1	0-6
				AS Roma	0-1	0-0
2004	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R		Marek Dupnitza	2-1	0-0
		3R		Borussia Dortmund	0-1	2-1
		Semifinals		União Leiria	0-0	0-2
2005-06	UEFA Cup	2QR		Liepajas Metalurgs	3-0	3-2
		1R		PFC Litex Lovech	0-1	2-2
2007-08	Champions League	2QR		FK Sarajevo	1-2	1-0
2009-10	Europa League	Play-off		Lille OSC	1-2	2-4
2010-11	Europa League	3Q		Inter Turku	3-2	5-1
		Play-off		Porto	0-3	2-4

Current squad

As of July 26, 2010

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

No. Position Player 2 DF Dimitri Daeseleire 3 MF David Hubert 4 DF Torben Joneleit 5 DF Eric Matoukou 7 MF Fabien Camus 8 MF Dániel Tőzsér 9 FW Jelle Vossen 14 MF Kevin De Bruyne 16 DF Anele Ngcongca 17 FW Stein Huysegems 18 FW Elyaniv Barda

No. Position Player 19 FW Thomas Buffel 21 MF Dugary Ndabashinze 22 FW Maurizio Aquino 23 FW Samuel Yeboah 24 DF Timothy Durwael 25 GK Koen Casteels 26 GK László Köteles 28 GK Thibault Courtois 32 GK Gilles Lentz 30 DF João Carlos 31 FW Marvin Ogunjimi 33 MF Daniel Pudil 39 FW Moussa Koita

Noted past players

Noted managers

1990s

• Enver Alisic (?-1995)
• Aimé Anthuenis (1995-99)
• Jos Heyligen (1999-00)
• Johan Boskamp (2000)

2000s

• Pierre Denier (2001, caretaker)
• Sef Vergoossen (2001-03)
• Pierre Denier / Ronny Van Geneugden (2003-04, caretakers)
• René Vandereycken (2004-05)
• Hugo Broos (2005- Feb 08)
• Ronny Van Geneugden (2008-Mar 09)
• Hein Vanhaezebrouck (2009)

Sponsors

• Euphony
• Nike
• Carglass
• Mc'Donalds
• Asap.be
• Vasco
• Echo Engineering

External links

• (English) (Dutch) KRC Genk Official Website
• (English) KRC Genk at UEFA.COM
• KRC Genk at EUFO.DE
• KRC Genk at Weltfussball.de
• KRC Genk at Playerhistory.com
• KRC Genk at Transfermarkt.de
• KRC Genk at Football Squads.co.uk
• KRC Genk at National Football Teams.com
• KRC Genk at Football Lineups.com
• (English) RC Genk XtraTime Fanpage
• (German) THOR WATERSCHEI Football-Blog