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Sporting Lokeren
Full name	Koninklijke Sporting Club; Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen
Nickname(s)	Tricolores
Founded	22 January 1923; 101 years ago
Dissolved	20 April 2020; 4 years ago
Ground	Daknamstadion, Lokeren
Capacity	12,136

Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈspɔrtɪŋ ˌklʏp ˈloːkərən oːstˈflaːndərə(n), -rə ʔoː-]), often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren, was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ceased to exist in 2020 after going bankrupt.^[2] A few days after the bankruptcy, the club announced that rather than dissolving entirely, it would merge with KSV Temse to form Lokeren-Temse, starting in the Belgian Second Amateur Division (fourth level).^[3]

Lokeren first reached the first division in 1974–75. Since then, it had a short spell in the Second Division between 1993–94 and 1995–96. Lokeren had its most successful period in the 1980s, achieving second place in the league in 1980–81 as well as a Belgian Cup final the same year. Its best European result was reaching the quarter-final of the 1980–81 UEFA Cup. In the year 2000, the club merged with K Sint-Niklase SKE. They were registered to the Royal Belgian Football Association with the matricule number 282. Lokeren's colours were white, black and yellow. They played their home games at the Daknamstadion.

In 2012, Sporting Lokeren won the Belgian Cup, the club's first-ever honours, after beating KV Kortrijk in the Cup Final. They won their second Cup just two years later, after beating Zulte Waregem 1–0.

History

The matricule No. 282 was given in 1920 to a club named Football Club Racing Club Lokeren (nicknamed Racing FC), but the team stopped its activity the next year. On 22 January 1923 Racing Club Lokeren was founded. Between 1945 and 1951, it had a slight name change (to Racing Athletiek- en Football Club Lokeren) and the new name since 1951 was Koninklijke Racing Club Lokeren. Due to financial problems, the fusion with the other team from the town (Koninklijke Standaard FC Lokeren) became necessary in 1970. The new club was then named Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren.

In 2000, the club merged with Koninklijke Sint-Niklaas SKE to form Sporting Lokeren Sint-Niklaas Waasland. The latest name change occurred in 2003, with the province name added to the club name.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, Sporting Lokeren were relegated to the First Division B, the second tier of Belgian football.^[4] In 2019, the club was taken over by a group led by Louis de Vries and Alexander Janssen, taking the positions of president and CEO respectively.

On 20 April 2020, the club was declared bankrupt during the 2019–20 season.^[2] Lokeren had outstanding debts of €5 million and was not able to pay its staff and players anymore.

On 22 April 2020, Lokeren agreed to merge with KSV Temse to form a new club in K.S.C. Lokeren-Temse and to start in the Second Amateur Division, the national fourth level.^[5]

Honours

Belgian First Division:
- Runners-up (1): 1980–81
Belgian Second Division:
- Winners (1): 1995–96
Belgian Cup:
- Winners (2): 2011–12, 2013–14
- Runners-up (1): 1980–81
Belgian Super Cup:
- Runners-up (2): 2012, 2014

European record

Competition	A	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League	8	38	16	10	12	46	37
UEFA Intertoto Cup	4	18	7	2	9	25	28

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
1976–77	UEFA Cup	1R	Red Boys Differdange	3–1	3–0
		2R	Barcelona	2–1	0–2
1980–81	UEFA Cup	1R	Dynamo Moscow	1–1	1–0
		2R	Dundee United	0–0	1–1
		3R	Real Sociedad	1–0	2–2
		QF	AZ 67 Alkmaar	1–0	0–2
1981–82	UEFA Cup	1R	Nantes	4–2	1–1
		2R	Aris Thessaloniki	4–0	1–1
		3R	1. FC Kaiserslautern	1–0	1–4
1982–83	UEFA Cup	1R	Stal Mielec	0–0	1–1
		2R	Benfica	1–2	0–2
1987–88	UEFA Cup	1R	Honvéd Budapest	0–0	0–1
1999	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R	IA Akranes	3–1	3–1
		3R	Metz	1–2	1–0
2001	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	B68 Toftir	0–0	4–2
		2R	Zagłębie Lubin	2–1	2–2
		3R	Newcastle United	0–4	0–1
2002	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	WIT Georgia	3–1	2–3
		2R	VfB Stuttgart	0–1	0–2
2003–04	UEFA Cup	QUAL	Dinamo Tirana	3–1	4–0
		1R	Manchester City	0–1	2–3
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	Narva Trans	0–1	2–0
		2R	BSC Young Boys	1–4	1–2
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	PO	Viktoria Plzeň	2–1	0–1
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	PO	Hull City	1–0	1–2
		Group	Legia Warsaw	1–0	0–1
		Group	Metalist Kharkiv	1–0	1–0
		Group	Trabzonspor	1–1	0–2

Final squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
2	DF	BEL	Stefano Marzo
3	DF	JPN	Ryuta Koike
5	MF	MLI	Abdoulaye Diaby (on loan from Antwerp)
6	MF	CIV	Lamine N'dao
7	MF	BEL	Killian Overmeire (captain)
8	MF	SEN	Abdou Diakhaté (on loan from Parma)
9	FW	BIH	Anel Hajrić
14	MF	JPN	Jun Amano
15	FW	GEO	Giorgi Beridze (on loan from Gent)
17	MF	NED	Guus Hupperts
19	MF	ROU	Vlad Mitrea


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	DF	BEL	Jimmy De Jonghe
22	FW	ITA	Said Ahmed Said (on loan from Rio Ave)
26	DF	BEL	Arno Monsecour
28	MF	BEL	Amine Benchaib
29	MF	BEL	Bob Straetman
30	GK	BEL	Robin Mantel
33	GK	BEL	Théo Defourny
35	DF	BEL	Tracy Mpati
37	DF	BEL	Jelle Van Damme
41	DF	CGO	Francis N'Ganga
44	MF	BEL	Seth De Witte