From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charleroi
Full name	Royale Charleroi Sporting Club
Nickname(s)	Les Zèbres (The Zebras), Les Carolos
Founded	January 1, 1904 (creation) November 24, 1907 (registration)
Ground	Stade du Pays de Charleroi, Charleroi (Capacity 22,000)
Chairman	Abbas Bayat
Manager	Philippe Van de Walle
League	Jupiler League
2006-07	Jupiler League, 5th
Home colours 　 Away colours

R. Charleroi S.C. is a Belgian football club from the city of Charleroi, Hainaut.

Hailing from a French-speaking area, it has been recruiting several French players in recent years. It has played in the Jupiler League since the 1985-86 season. The second club from the city is R.O.C. de Charleroi-Marchienne, which plays in the second division.

Contents 1 History 2 Colours and badge 3 Stadium 4 Current squad 2007/08 5 Former Players 6 Honours 7 European record 8 References

Charleroi Sporting Club was founded in 1904 and received the matricule n°22. Twenty years later, the club qualified to play in the second division and in 1929, the prefix Royale was added to the name. The R.O.C. was playing in the first division in the late 1930s and in the 1940s while the Sporting was one level down, until the promotion of RCSC in 1947.

In 1949, the Sporting finished 4th (2 points behind Standard Liège) whereas the Olympic was 14th. But the Olympic took the lead again until 1955 and the relegation of the O.C. Charleroi. In 1957, OCC had promoted in the first division but RCSC finished last. A spell of 9 seasons in the second division followed and in 1966, the Sporting was back at the top level. It finished 2nd in 1969 with 5 points less than Standard but it was relegated within two years.

In 1974 the first division was changing from 16 to 20 teams and Sporting Charleroi was chosen to play at that level. Olympic promoted too as it had won the second division right before but it was relegated the year after. Sporting underwent a new relegation in 1980 (17th on 18) but was back five years later. Its best result since then in the Jupiler League is a 4th place in 1994.

In September 2005, the G-14 took FIFA to court over the 8 month injury incurred by Abdelmajid Oulmers whilst on international duty with Morocco.

The colours of Charleroi are black and white with a shirt generally striped, which lead to the team being nicknamed The Zebras. In the season 2005-06 the team's away kit was pink.

Main article: Stade du Pays de Charleroi

The actual ground was baptized in 1939 with a match Sporting-Union du Centre and it was located near the coal mine named Mambourg. In 1985 the stadium was slightly modernized as the club had qualified for the first division. It was then heavily renewed in the late 1990s in view of the 2000 European Football Championship. The name changed on May 24, 1999 from Stade du Mambourg to Stade du Pays de Charleroi. During the tournament, the full capacity of the stadium was up to 30,000 seats. The Stade du Pays de Charleroi hosted notably the match Germany-England. The highest stand was eventually reduced and the capacity is now of about 25,000.

No. Position Player 1 GK Damien Lahaye 2 DF Frank Defays (captain) 3 DF Salaheddine Sbai 4 DF Ibrahima Diallo 5 MF Filippo Porco 6 MF Cristian Leiva (on loan from Anderlecht) 7 MF Tim Smolders 8 MF Grégory Christ 9 FW Joseph Akpala 10 MF Geoffrey Mujangi Bia 11 FW Mahamadou Habibou 12 MF Baptiste Ulens 13 FW Romain Dutrieux 14 FW Damien Miceli 15 MF Fabien Camus

No. Position Player 16 DF Mahamoudou Kéré 17 MF Steve Verelst 20 MF Thibaut Detal 21 MF Abdelmajid Oulmers 22 FW Orlando 23 GK Cyprien Baguette 24 FW Brice Jovial 25 FW Michaël N'dri 26 DF Laurent Ciman 27 DF Sébastien van Aerschot 28 GK Bertrand Laquait 30 MF Rémi Sergio DF Flavio Fragapane DF Greg Dalby

• Carl Airey (1986) 3 games 0 goals
• Roberto Bisconti
• Laurie Cunningham (1987) 1 game 0 goals
• Régis Genaux
• Michael Harrison (footballer) (1985-87) 49 apps 1 goal
• John McGinlay (English Footballer) (1982-84) [1]
• Olivier Renard
• Daniel Van Buyten
• Gary Waddock (1987-89) 40 games 1 goal

• Belgian First Division:
  • Runners-up (1): 1968-69
• Belgian Second Division:
  • Winners (1): 1946-47
  • Runners-up (1): 1965-66
• Belgian Second Division Final Round:
  • Winners (1): 1985
• Belgian Cup:
  • Runners-up (2): 1977-78, 1992-93

As of March 5, 2006:

Competition	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
UEFA Cup	1	2	1	0	1	2	3
Intertoto Cup	3	10	3	3	4	11	11

A = appearances, B = matches played, C = won, D = drawn, E = lost, F = goals for, G = goals against.

• (French) Official website
• (English) UEFA page

Jupiler League 2007/08 v • d • e
RSC Anderlecht | FC Brussels | Cercle Brugge | Charleroi SC | Club Brugge | FCV Dender | Excelsior Mouscron | RC Genk | AA Gent | Germinal Beerschot | SC Lokeren | KV Mechelen | AEC Mons | SV Roeselare | Sint-Truidense VV | Standard Liège | VC Westerlo | SV Zulte-Waregem
Jupiler League seasons v • d • e
1984-85 | 1985-86 | 1986-87 | 1987-88 | 1988-89 | 1989-90 | 1990-91 | 1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08
Football in Belgium v • d • e
League competitions The FA Cup competitions and awards Jupiler League Belgium Cup Second division Women Supercup Third division (A, B) List of clubs Golden Shoe Promotion (A, B, C, D) List of venues Professional football awards