YB SK Beveren

After a long period of financial struggle and a very likely relegation from the Belgian Second Division, the board members of K.S.K. Beveren decided in May 2010 to terminate all male senior footballing activities for the next season. This decision came after political pressure at community level and was the result of expensive investments in the club's Freethiel Stadion. It then was decided that instead of K.S.K. Beveren, the local neighbours of K.F.C. Red Star Waasland (a small but financially healthy club) would start the 2010–2011 season at the Freethiel Stadion. As a concession to the Beveren supporters, the club changed its name to Waasland-Beveren, its colours to yellow-blue-red and its badge into a newly created one. However, the majority of the board members, the manager and the players of Red Star Waasland moved to Beveren and the club took on the football association's number of Waasland (4068).^[1]

For many supporters this concession wasn't enough. While hundreds of fans simply stayed away from the new club Waasland-Beveren, a fraction of them started a new project. On August 4, 2010, a new website was launched, www.eskabee.be, in order to commemorate the rich past of K.S.K. Beveren and to restart a new team in the lower Belgian divisions.^[2] In a couple of weeks the new site received over 500 registrees and drew attention from several national newspapers, who reported the "Resurrection of KSK Beveren from its ashes".^[3] One of the figureheads of the new project was former Dutch international Wim Hofkens, who played for K.S.K. Beveren between 1976 and 1980.^[4] On January 12, 2011, the official website reported that the VZW Eskabee 1935 was formed and that the statutes were written.^[5] On January 21, 2011, these statutes were signed by the ten founding members of the VZW, including chairman Andre Bolsens, a local doctor who was the only board member of K.S.K. Beveren that voted against the merger of May 2010.^[6] The new club also announced their cooperation with Supporters Direct and their clear ambition to restart footballing activities in the lowest Belgian division.^[7]

On March 23, 2011, the club played its first unofficial friendly game against the Under 19s team of local club HRS Haasdonk. The match served as a testing training in order to form a team for the 2011–2012 season under the management of Wim Hofkens. Beveren won the game by 2–0 in front of a crowd of nearly 350 spectators.^[8] Shortly after the match, the club officially sent a request to the Royal Belgian Football Association to register their team for the upcoming season under the name 'Supporterskring Beveren'.^[9] On April 5, 2011, the Municipality of Beveren announced that there was no place for the new club in their town, despite earlier agreements with the Schepen of Sports and several talks with Waasland-Beveren about the use of the training fields surrounding Freethiel Stadion.^[10] Despite this major setback, the club played a second testing match against the KSK Kallo reserve team the following evening and won again, this time with 2–5 in front of 300 spectators.^[11]

During the first General Assembly of the VZW on April 25, 2011, it was decided that the club would start playing its first season in the neighboring city of Sint-Niklaas, specifically at a training field of former 2nd Division club Sportkring Sint-Niklaas. Instead of 'Supporterskring Beveren', which was denied by the Royal Belgian Football Association, the name 'Yellow Blue Beveren' was chosen, referring to the club colours and taking Yellow Red K.V. Mechelen as an example in that regard.^[12] The club received registration number 9577 from the Royal Belgian Football Association,^[13] but has always maintained the ambition of recovering the number 2300 from K.S.K. Beveren in the future as a rightful heir of its legacy.^[14] On May 30, 2011, both the agreement with Sportkring Sint-Niklaas and the registration with the Royal Belgian Football Association were settled, so YB SK Beveren was finally able to start playing football in the 2011–2012 season.^[15]

On July 24, 2011, YB SK Beveren played its first official pre-season friendly and lost against Belgica Edegem.^[16] On September 4, 2011, started the competition with a 2–2 draw in an away game against Hardy Waasmunster, with striker Bjorn Van Der Stighelen scoring the first official goal for the club in front of over 300 fans.^[17] The following week YB SK Beveren won its first home game against VK Tielrode with 1–0 in front of 450 fans,^[18] again causing significant media attention from several national football websites.^[19][20] After a promising start the club failed to confirm, resulting in a bad streak and the resignation of Wim Hofkens as a manager.^[21] His successor Luc Piessens debuted in the worst imaginable way losing 9–1 away to Haasdonk B, which is to date the worst defeat ever of YB SK Beveren.^[22] On January 5, 2012, founding board member Wim Hofkens left the club definitively after his earlier resignation as a manager.^[23] Despite the relatively poor results 270 fans visited the away game against SK Belsele. In an atmospheric game played in Red Star Waasland's former home, the Puyenbekestadion, Beveren won with 0–2.^[24] Early March, active player Margino De Kerf took over as manager for the remainder of the season.^[25] Beveren ended the 2011–2012 season in a disappointing 11th position.^[26]

Since the beginning of the year 2012 several meetings between the club and the Municipality of Beveren took place, in which the possibility of returning to home town Beveren was discussed. Early March, Major Marc Van De Vijver declared in local media that there was a very big chance that the club was yet again welcome in his village, since the fans of the club had proved during the first season that there were no significant security risks during their matches.^[27] Early April, the General Assembly of the club voted in favour of a return to Beveren, despite the good relationship with Sportkring Sint-Niklaas.^[28] On August 5, 2012, YB SK Beveren played its first official game in its hometown Beveren in an East Flanders Cup (a qualification tournament of the Beker van België) game against Hardy Waasmunster. The club was granted permission to play its home games on a former training field of KSK Beveren near the Freethiel, sharing its usage with Waasland-Beveren.^[29] While the supporters could celebrate the return to their home soil, on the field affairs kept on lacking stability as proven by the resignation of the sporting director before competition even started.^[30] After a string of disappointing results, head coach Margino De Kerf was dismissed and replaced by assistant coach Kurt Dierick.^[31] Under the new head coach, Beveren won a series of matches to eventually obtain a place in the promotion playoffs. The decisive match against Overmere was played in Freethiel Stadium, which meant the return of the club to their spiritual home almost three years after the dissolving of KSK Beveren.^[32][33] In the playoffs Beveren drew a bye for the first round, which meant that they only had to win one away game against Wippelgem in order to achieve promotion.^[34] In a tight game, Beveren won 1–2 with Alexander Vereecken and Koen Strybos scoring before a crowd of nearly 500 travelling fans.^[35][36]

After a promising start of the season, newly promoted Beveren started to struggle in the higher division with inter alia a devastating 8–0 loss at Sinaai who would eventually become the new champion.^[37] At the end of October, the sporting director as well as several new signings left the club due to the bad results and disagreements with the board.^[38] A few weeks later, head coach Kurt Dierick became the new sporting director with his first assignment being the search for a replacement for himself as head coach.^[39] On November 6, 2013, Benny Van Polfliet was appointed as new head coach.^[40][41][42] During the winter break, three new players were added to the team.^[43][44][45] Amongst them were two Dutchmen who came through the youth system of PSV Eindhoven and one of them, Rachid Chelah,^{[46][citation needed]} even had a past as a professional a few years earlier. After an away defeat against relegation rivals White Boys Sint-Niklaas, Benny Van Polfliet was dismissed after being in charge for not even two months.^[47] A few weeks later, former KSK Beveren professional player Stefan Van Rumst^[48] was appointed as new head coach.^[49] A few days later, the whole technical staff except the head coach and the sporting director left the club, being disappointed in the board's decision of choosing Van Rumst.^[50] Eventually YB SK Beveren ended in last place with only 17 points and relegated back to the 4th Provincial League.^[51]

YB SK Beveren started the 2014–2015 with new hopes and a lot of new players. Pre-season friendlies and tournaments promised the best, as Beveren won its first trophy with the Beker van Beveren. A late winner from Lenny Laureys proved enough to beat KFC Vrasene in the final.^[52][53] The club also reached the final of the Waasland Cup,^[54] but lost to White Boys Sint-Niklaas with 4–2.^[55] Competition started well with inter alia an 8–0 home win against Baasrode at KSK Beveren's 79th birthday,^[56] but a black November month in which the club lost to local neighbours Bosdam^[57] and suffered its worst defeat of the season in a 5-0 battering at Belsele^[58] promised another difficult year in Belgium's bottom league. After the return of several injured players, Beveren won eight matches in a row from late December until early March (the longest winning streak in their history until that point), bringing them back to second place in the league. On April 18, 2015, Beveren secured a place in the play-offs for promotion with a 3–1 home win against SK Belsele.^[59] On May 5, 2015, Beveren won the play-offs and secured promotion to the 3rd Provincial League with a convincing 0–5 away win at Rupelmonde. Player of the Season Dominique Lefevre, Kristof Van Rumst, Jimmy Potithai and Lenny Laureys scored before half-time, while Potithai added its second of the afternoon after the break. More than 500 fans made the trip to Rupelmonde, providing a big atmosphere.^[60]

Newly promoted Beveren started the 2015–2016 season with a deserved draw at White Boys Sint-Niklaas, obtained by a last gasp goal by captain Tom Van Den Eede,^[61] who would become a few weeks later the first player of YB SK Beveren to perform in 100 league games. A week later the club celebrated the 80th birthday of KSK Beveren with a party, a firework spectacle and a close win against Hamme-Zogge.^[62] Furthermore, the day after the club released the first part of its book that commemorates the rich past of KSK Beveren. Several of the most notable players were presented at the official release event, including Jean-Marie Pfaff, Wilfried Van Moer and Jean Janssens (the three Beveren players who won the Belgian Golden Shoe).^[63][64][65] The club also appeared in Belgium's most important football magazine which discussed the story of the authors of the book.^[66] The festivities however were halted a few weeks later, when an incident took place between some fans during the home game against SK Wachtebeke (see section Rivalries) which would eventually lead to a 0–5 loss and a 1500 euro fine from the Royal Belgian Football Association.^[67] Despite having the chance to obtain a ticket for the play-offs in February, YB SK Beveren ended the season in mid-table, hereby meeting the goal of staying in the division.