Royal Charleroi S.C.

Sporting Charleroi
Full name	Royal Charleroi Sporting Club
Nickname(s)	Les Zèbres (The Zebras), ; Les Carolos
Founded	1 January 1904; 120 years ago
Ground	Stade du Pays de Charleroi
Capacity	15,000
Chairman	Fabien Debecq
Managing Director	Mehdi Bayat
Head coach	Rik De Mil
League	Belgian Pro League
2023–24	Belgian Pro League, 13th of 16
Website	https://www.sporting-charleroi.be
Home colours	Away colours
	Current season

Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League. Their current spell at the highest level in Belgian football started in the 2012–13 season. Charleroi was founded in 1904 and they first reached the first division in 1947–48. Their highest finish was runner-up in the 1968–69 season. They have also twice reached the Belgian Cup final, losing in 1977–78 to Beveren and in 1992–93 to Standard Liège.

Sporting Charleroi have a long-standing rivalry with their crosstown rival ROC de Charleroi-Marchienne, currently playing in the third division. Charleroi play their home matches at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, which was refurbished for the UEFA Euro 2000. The stadium hosted 3 group stage games in the Euro 2000 among which the 1–0 victory of England against Germany. Charleroi have been recruiting several French players in recent years, including Michaël Ciani, Cyril Théréau and goalkeeper Bertrand Laquait.

History

Charleroi Sporting Club was founded in 1904 and they received the matricule n°22. Twenty years after their foundation, they qualified to play in the Promotion (then the second level in Belgian football) and in 1929, the club changed its name to Royal Charleroi Sporting Club. Rivals from Olympic Charleroi were playing in the first division in the late 1930s and the 1940s, while Sporting Charleroi was playing one level down, until they promoted in 1947. In 1949, Sporting Charleroi finished 4th (2 points behind Standard Liège) whereas Olympic Charleroi was 14th. But Olympic took the lead again until 1955 and their relegation to the second division. At the end of the 1956–57 season, Olympic Charleroi had promoted to the first division but Sporting Charleroi finished last in the first division and was thus relegated to the second division. A spell of 9 seasons in the second division followed and in 1966–67 Sporting Charleroi was back at the top level. They finished at the second place in 1968–69 5 points behind Standard Liège but within two years they were relegated again.

In 1974 the first division was changing from 16 to 20 teams and Sporting Charleroi was chosen to play at the top level. Olympic Charleroi promoted too as they had won the second division right before but they remained at the top level for just one season. Sporting underwent a new relegation in 1979–80 (17th on 18) but was back five years later. Their best result since then in the first division is a 4th place in 1993–94. In September 2005, the G-14 took FIFA to court over the eight-month injury incurred by Abdelmajid Oulmers whilst on international duty with Morocco.

Colours and badge

Characters Boule et Bill as Charleroi-supporters

The colours of Charleroi are black and white with a shirt generally striped, which led to the team being nicknamed The Zebras.

Stadium

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 24 May 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 between Germany and England. The highest stand was eventually reduced and the capacity is now 15,000.^[3]

Honours

Belgian First Division
- Runners-up: 1968–69
Belgian Second Division
- Winners: 1946–47, 2011–12
- Runners-up: 1965–66
Belgian Second Division play-offs
- Winners: 1985
Belgian Cup
- Runners-up: 1977–78, 1992–93

European record

Overview

Correct as of May 2016

Competition	Played	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Cup	2	1	0	1	2	3
UEFA Intertoto Cup	10	3	3	4	11	11
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	4	3	0	1	8	5
UEFA Europa League	4	2	0	2	9	7
TOTAL	20	9	3	8	30	26

Matches

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Zagreb	2–1	3–1	5–2
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	2R	FC Rouen	3–1	0–2	3–3(a)
1994–95	UEFA Cup	1R	Rapid București	2–1	0–2	2–3
1995	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 10	Beitar Jerusalem	—	1–0	3rd
			Bursaspor	0–2	—
			FC Košice	—	2–3
			Wimbledon	3–0	—
1996	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 4	Silkeborg IF	2–4	—	3rd
			Conwy United	—	0–0
			Zagłębie Lubin	0–0	—
			SV Ried	—	3–1
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R	Tampere United	0–0	0–1	0–1
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Beitar Jerusalem	5–1	4–1	9–2
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Zorya Luhansk	0–2	0–3	0–5
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Partizan	2–1 (aet)	—	—
2020–21	UEFA Europa League	PO	Lech Poznań	1–2	—	—

Current squad

As of 6 September 2024^[4]

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
4	DF	SYR	Aiham Ousou (on loan from Slavia Prague)
5	MF	FRA	Etienne Camara
6	MF	ALG	Adem Zorgane (captain)
7	FW	BEL	Isaac Mbenza
8	MF	CIV	Parfait Guiagon
9	FW	PLE	Oday Dabbagh
15	DF	NOR	Vetle Dragsnes
17	MF	BEL	Antoine Bernier
18	MF	BEL	Daan Heymans
19	FW	SRB	Nikola Štulić
21	DF	CYP	Stelios Andreou
22	MF	ALG	Yassine Titraoui
24	DF	BEL	Mardochee Nzita


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
28	FW	GHA	Raymond Asante (on loan from Udinese)
29	DF	SVN	Žan Rogelj
30	GK	CIV	Mohamed Koné
33	GK	FRA	Théo Defourny
55	GK	BEL	Martin Delavallée
56	MF	BEL	Amine Boukamir
60	GK	BEL	Nicolas Closset
66	MF	BEL	Noam Mayoka-Tika
70	MF	FRA	Alexis Flips (on loan from Anderlecht)
80	FW	BEL	Youssuf Sylla
95	DF	FRA	Cheick Keita
98	DF	FRA	Jeremy Petris
99	FW	FRA	Grejohn Kyei (on loan from Standard Liège)

On loan