What is KV Mechelen? Facts and background

Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌjɛloː ˈrɛt ˌkoːnɪŋkləkə ˌvudbɑlklʏp ˈmɛxələ(n)]), often called KV Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation: [kaːˌveː ˈmɛxələ(n)], KVM) or simply by their former French name Malinois ([ˌmalɪˈnwɑː]), 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 twice the Belgian Cup, as well as the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1988 European Super Cup. They collected most 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 second- and third-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 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. They were therefore relegated to the third division with a nine-point penalty. After two promotions in 2004–05 and in 2006–07, KV Mechelen returned to the first division.

The club's outfits are a striped yellow and red shirt with black shorts and socks. They play their home matches at the AFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne, where AFAS 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

Early days

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 Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 1960s and the 1970s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division.

High days

The club enjoyed a spell of both domestic and European success in the period from 1987 to 1992. During these five seasons, Mechelen won one Belgian championship and one Belgian cup title. They also finished second 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 Winners' Cup, they won this tournament in 1988.

Coached by Aad de Mos, the balanced team with international players like Michel Preud'Homme, Lei Clijsters, Erwin Koeman, Marc Emmers and Eli Ohana defeated Ajax in the final 1–0. In the 1988–89 season, the team also won the European Super Cup against another Dutch side, PSV Eindhoven. 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 John Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. A few years in a row, Anderlecht, located in nearby Brussels, attracted top players from Mechelen such as Graeme Rutjes, Johnny Bosman, Marc Emmers, Bruno Versavel, Philippe Albert and Glen de Boeck. Coach de Mos also made the switch.

In 1997, Mechelen finished second to last again, and was therefore relegated to the Second Division.

Since 2000

On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the final of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to Genk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi-finals 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 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 Janković as head coach. Despite Janković's inability to lead the club to Play-off 1, Janković left for topclub Standard Liège and Mechelen had to appoint a new manager.

The club ended up choosing Yannick Ferrera for the vacant job, who had just been fired as manager of Standard Liège.

Match-fixing and 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal

2017 through 2019 proved to be a tumultuous period for the club. After eleven seasons at the highest level, the club was relegated on the last day of the 2017–18 season as a 2–0 win over Waasland-Beveren left them in last place on goal difference, due to Eupen beating Moeskroen by a bigger margin (4–0). During the following season, while the club was very successful on the pitch, winning both the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B and the 2018–19 Belgian Cup, the 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal emerged in which the club was accused of match-fixing their final match of the 2017–18 season, allegedly having attempted to bribe certain players and officials of Waasland-Beveren.

In March 2019, the club was found guilty and forced to relegate back to the First Division B despite winning promotion, and also denied permission to take part in the 2019–20 Belgian Cup and 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, the latter for which they had qualified by winning the cup. The club appealed the decision at the Belgian Arbitration Court for Sports which ruled on 10 July 2019 that, in accordance with the rules set by the Royal Belgian Football Association, relegation was not a possible punishment in the circumstances.

As a result, the club was punished with a one-season ban from European football and the Belgian Cup. The proceedings were plagued with controversy, with evidence (including witness statements) from an investigation into financial crimes in Belgian football not being made available during these disciplinary proceedings, as well as the impartiality of the prosecutor being called into question.

Second Belgian Cup

In May 2019, more than 30 years after their last major trophy, second division side Mechelen won the Belgian Cup after a 2–1 victory over Gent in the final at the King Baudouin Stadium. Germán Mera scored the winning goal after Nikola Storm made the equalizer.

Rivalries

KV Mechelen's traditional rival is Racing Mechelen. However, the two have sparingly met in the modern era, the last time being in 2005, where the game had to be stopped due to crowd violence. Traditionally KV Mechelen was the club of the Catholic elite in the city, while Racing was set up by the secular, liberal classes, with nationalist sympathies.

KV Mechelen has since taken on a more broader support from the Antwerp province and beyond, while Racing's support has died down due to being in inferior divisions.

KV Mechelen also have a rivalry with football clubs from the neighbouring town of Lier (mainly Lierse SK and its successors). They additionally have a rivalry with Beerschot Antwerp, which was heightened during the match-fixing scandal of 2017–2019, due to Mechelen's promotion instead of Beerschot despite being found guilty of match fixing in the previous season.

Honours

Domestic

Belgian First Division A
- Champions (4): 1942–43, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1988–89
Belgian Cup
- Winners (2): 1986–87, 2018–19
Belgian Second Division
- Winners (7): 1925–26, 1927–28, 1962–63, 1982–83, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2018–19
Belgian Second Division final round
- Winners: 1981, 2007, 2019
Belgian Third Division
- Winners: 2004–05

International

European Cup Winners Cup
- Winners: 1987–88
European Super Cup
- Winners: 1988

European record

KV Mechelen's Belgian Cup win in 1987 saw the club participate in UEFA club competition for the first time in their history, entering the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup. It proved to be a highly successful campaign, with Mechelen reaching the final undefeated by winning seven of their eight matches en route.

They then went on to defeat Ajax 1–0 in the final, Piet den Boer scoring the decisive goal early in the second half. The following season Mechelen played 1988 European Cup winners PSV in the UEFA Super Cup, and defeated the Dutch side 3–1 on aggregate. Mechelen remain the last Belgian club team to have won a European club competition.

As of December 2008.

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.

Results

Q = qualification round
PO = play-off
R = round
Group = group stage / Group 1 = first group stage / Group 2 = second group stage
1/8 = eighth finals / 1/4 = quarter-finals / 1/2 = semi-finals
F = final