Seraing United

The one fixture that mattered most on this ground was absent for a quarter of a century. Standard de Liège is the name attached to the Derby liégeois, but between the old RFC Seraing's collapse in 1996 and this club's return to the top flight in 2021, the rivalry existed on paper long before it existed on a Saturday afternoon again. A quieter one, with RFC Liège, never went away.

The club playing under the Seraing name today did not descend from the RFC Seraing that Standard absorbed in 1996. That earlier side, matricule 17, won the Belgian Cup in 1961 and gave the local game its most celebrated forward, Jules Bocandé, who scored for it between 1982 and 1984 before topping the French league's charts in 1985–86 — an academy now bears his name. The current club carries matricule 167, registered in 1922 as Sporting Club Boussu-Bois. It moved through Royal Sporting Club Boussu-Bois, Royal Francs Borains, and Royal Boussu Dour Borinage before FC Metz bought it in July 2014, relocated it to Seraing and renamed it Seraing United. Belgian federation rules blocked an immediate return to the old title — matricule 17 had already been struck off — so the club waited until 1 July 2015 to become Royal Football Club Seraing.

Metz still runs it, which is how the squad draws on players from the Metz academy and from Senegal. Supporters call the team Les Métallos, echoed in the red shirts and black shorts. None of the club's own honours reach the top division: two Belgian Second Division titles, in 1981–82 and 1992–93, and five Third Division titles along the way. Stade du Pairay, rebuilt in 2016, now holds 8,207 — 5,000 seated.