Geel

The rivalry that mattered most to Verbroedering Geel was never settled on the pitch. When promotion to the top flight arrived in 1999, the club merged with neighbouring K.F.C. Herentals and kept the Herentals registration number rather than its own.

Geel itself came out of a merger too. FC Flandria, formed in 1912, joined Geel Sport in 1921, and the combined side registered with the Belgian FA three years later under number 395. The blue and white stayed. So did the nickname the town gave them: De zotten — the madmen.

The 1998–99 season was the high point. Winning the Second Division final round put Geel into the Jupiler Pro League for 1999–2000, with Paul Put in charge. Five years earlier the club had reached the quarter-finals of the Belgian Cup, knocking out St. Truiden VV on penalties after a 2-2 draw before Charleroi ended it 1-5.

The fall was quicker. On 30 November 2005 Geel were found guilty of fixing results in the Second Division final round of the previous season and were relegated to the Third Division. The chairman, Wis Kiersmaeker, resigned. The club won the Third Division final round in 2006–07, but the money never came back — talks with the Egyptian group Wadi Degla Investment went nowhere, and on 30 June 2008 Geel filed for bankruptcy.

De Leunen did not go dark. Verbroedering Meerhout moved in and renamed itself Verbroedering Geel-Meerhout. A refurbishment in 2015–16 cut the ground down to 8,000 — 5,000 seated, 3,000 standing — from the 10,524 it held on the nights Geel were in the first division.