Stedelijk Forestiersstadion

The Stedelijk Forestiersstadion does not announce itself. It sits at the end of Stasegemsesteenweg in Harelbeke, the kind of place where the town spills out into the fields and the track runs straight through. The stands are close enough that you can hear the players talking to each other, though you cannot hear the crowd as well. The main stand is simple, with the same structure that has been there since the ground opened in 1980, though the seats look newer. The far side is a bank of green plastic, the same colour as the grass, and the advertising boards along the touchline have been replaced so many times that you cannot tell which ones are old. The pitch is cut tight and the lines are white. It is the only ground in Harelbeke, which means you do not have to travel anywhere else to see a match. KRC Harelbeke play here, but the club that was here before them—KRC Zuid-West-Vlaanderen—left a void that the current tenants have not filled. The capacity is often cited as ten thousand, which is a generous figure for the space. You can walk from the town centre to the stadium in ten minutes, and the players see the same houses every time they go out to train.