UR La Louvière Centre

Not to be confused with dissolved R.A.A. Louviéroise or current RAAL La Louvière, separate clubs from the same city.

UR La Louviére Centre

Full name	Union Royale La Louvière Centre
Founded	1922; 102 years ago (1922)
Ground	Stade du Tivoli
Capacity	12,500
Chairman	Huseyin Kazanci
Manager	Xavier Robert
League	Belgian Division 2
2023–24	ACFF, 7th of 18
Website	http://www.urlc.be/

Union Royale La Louvière Centre is a Belgian association football club based in La Louvière, in the province of Hainaut. Created in 1922 and the team currently play in Belgian Division 2, the fourth tier of Belgian football.

History

In 2011, it moved from Stade Raymond Dienne, Haine-Saint-Pierre to Stade du Tivoli, La Louvière as R.A.A. Louviéroise went into liquidation in 2009.

The team was originally known as Union Royale Sportive du Centre or URS Centre but this was changed to the current name in 2011.^[1] It is playing in the third division A since 2008–09. The club is based in La Louvière in the Centre area. Due to the competition reform of 2016, the club began competing in the new Belgian Second Amateur Division, where the club finished fourth in the first season. In 2017, Racing Charleroi Couillet Fleurus took on the name RAAL La Louvière and moved to the city in order to restore the former glory of the defunct R.A.A. Louviéroise.

In the 2018–19 season, the club won the title of the Walloon division of the Second Amateur Division, which meant that it they won promotion to the third-tier Belgian First Amateur Division.^[2] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was canceled after 24 matchdays. At that time, the club was in fourteenth place, which meant that they would be relegated to Second Amateur Division. However, in the end, there were several professional clubs that did not receive a licence for professional football and had to relegate to the Belgian Second Amateur Division, and thus the club remained in the third tier.^[3][4]

The club changed their logo in May 2020, and the bird and crown became dark blue instead of green. It was decided in May 2020 to change the club name to La Louvière Centre, thereby eliminating the addition "Union Royale". According to the board, the letters "URLC" had become synonymous its negative past of financial struggles.^[5]

Current squad

As of 27 January 2022

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  FRA Mansour Diallo 4 MF  FRA Amadou Diakhaté 5 DF  FRA Christopher Luhaka 6 MF  CIV Armand Blaide 7 MF  POR Eugénio Pina — FW  FRA Sofiene Lekehal 9 FW  FRA Amadou Ba — FW  FRA Saïf Sakhi 11 MF  BEL Marino Di Chiello 12 FW  BEL Yassin Aydouni 14 FW  BEL Ivan Prokhorov 15 FW  BEL Laurent Van Der Goten

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF  FRA Ahmed Bouchentouf 20 MF  FRA Yann Nkou 21 MF  FRA Yacine Bentayeb 22 FW  GUF Marc-Antoine Fortuné 24 MF  BEL Stéphane Mukala 25 MF  BEL Brahime Kaba — MF  FRA Bradley Mbuta 27 FW  BEL Deniz Bil — FW  BEL William Fonkeu 29 MF  DJI Haroun Mohamed 31 GK  COD Sébastien Fuakuingi 71 FW  BEL Tyron Crame

References

1. Historique LA NAISSANCE DE L'UNION ROYALE LA LOUVIÈRE CENTRE
2. Bellon, Dante (26 April 2019). "OVERZICHT. Deze clubs vechten nog om promotie en degradatie in de lagere reeksen". Het Nieuwsblad (in Flemish).
3. "Zes teams uit hoogste amateurliga vragen licentie voor 1B aan". Proximus (in Dutch). 15 February 2020.
4. "Football : licence en vue pour La Louvière-Centre". Télévision locale de la région du Centre (in French). 7 April 2020.
5. "Logo modifié, nouveau nom: La Louvière Centre polit son image". DH Les Sports + (in French). 26 May 2020.

External links

• Official website