Dark Soccer

More than 80 years of soccer, then bankruptcy. Since the club’s dissolution in 2011, the 6,000-seat De Schalk Stadium in Willebroek has stood silently in the heart of a residential neighborhood, awaiting its inevitable demolition…

The History of De Schalk Stadium

Located in Willebroek, in the province of Antwerp, De Schalk Stadium was for decades the home field of the club bearing the number 85. Founded in 1919 as Willebroekse SV, the club was assigned this number in 1926, when the Belgian Football Association began assigning numbers to its clubs. It spent two seasons in Division 2 and more than forty in Division 3, before gradually slipping down the ranks. In 2000, it merged with a neighboring club, FC Meerhof, to become KVC Willebroek-Meerhof. The Moortgat sign still visible above the concession stand served as a reminder of the Duvel brewery, which had long sponsored the club.

Sometimes, a club’s financial troubles are so severe that its registration number is doomed to disappear, no matter how long it has existed. This is what happened in 2011: KVC Willebroek-Meerhof went bankrupt, and registration number 85 was revoked. Without a resident club, the stadium – which seated about 6,000 – remained vacant for several years, until the municipality decided to redevelop the site. De Schalk was eventually demolished.

Our Visit

The stadium was located right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, and there were people all around it that day. We slipped in quietly through an open fence behind a side stand. On the other side, the silence stood in stark contrast to the street. All around the field, the standing-room-only stands were already disappearing beneath the vegetation, as if nature were reclaiming the bleachers one row at a time. On the field, where the players used to be, there was nothing but trash.

For a place that had been unused for several years, the stadium was surprisingly well-preserved: a few broken windows, nothing more. Its location in the heart of a residential neighborhood surely had something to do with it, and all the buildings were securely locked. So the visit took place entirely from the outside. It was a quiet, almost contemplative exploration of a stadium that seemed to be waiting for a final whistle that would never come…