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| Full name | Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | De Kakkers, Malinois, Malinwa, Geel-rood | |||
| Founded | 1904; 121 years ago (1904) | |||
| Ground | Achter de Kazerne | |||
| Capacity | 16,672[1] | |||
| Chairman | Luc Leemans | |||
| Head coach | Frederik Vanderbiest | |||
| League | Belgian Pro League | |||
| 2023–24 | Belgian Pro League, 8th of 16 | |||
| Website | www | |||
 Current season | ||||
Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen[2] (Dutch pronunciation:[ˌjɛloːˈrɛtˌkoːnɪŋkləkəˌvudbɑlklʏpˈmɛxələ(n)]), often calledKV Mechelen (Dutch pronunciation:[kaːˌveːˈmɛxələ(n)],KVM) or simply by their former French nameMalinois /ˌmalɪˈnwɑː/, is a Belgian professionalfootball club based inMechelen in theAntwerp province. KV Mechelen plays in theBelgian Pro League. They have won four Belgian championships and twice theBelgian Cup, as well as the1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup and the1988 European Super Cup. They collected most of their honours in the 1940s and in the 1980s.
KV Mechelen was founded in 1904 and, in1921–22, promoted to the first division. After two successive relegation and promotion, they were back for good between1928–29 and1955–56. In the 1960s and 1970s, the club had several promotions and relegations between the first andsecond division. From1983–84 to1996–97, they had a successful first division spell, with a title and several second- and third-place finishes. During that period, they also won a European Cup Winners' Cup and they reached the same competition semi-finals as well as theEuropean Cup quarter-finals.
KV Mechelen declined in the late 1990s though they had two more spells at the highest level from1999–2000 to2000–01 and in2002–03. At the end of that season, the club did not receive their Belgian professional football license. They were therefore relegated to thethird division with a nine-point penalty. After two promotions in2004–05 and in2006–07, KV Mechelen returned to the first division.
The club's outfits are a striped yellow and red shirt with black shorts and socks. They play their home matches at theAFAS-stadion Achter de Kazerne, where AFAS is their stadium sponsor andAchter de Kazerne means 'Behind the Barracks'. The stadium has been named so because there used to be barracks next to stadium. KV Mechelen fans have a long-standing rivalry withKRC Mechelen.
The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rivalKRC Mechelen. The club had a first successful period in the 1940s. During World War II, in 1943, the club won their first domestic title. The second title came a few years later, in 1946, and in 1948 the club was successful again. After that, the club fell back. In 1954, they managed to finish third, only one point behind championsAnderlecht, but that was their last good season.[3] Two years later, Mechelen was relegated to second division. During the 1960s and the 1970s, Mechelen went up and down between the first and second division.[4]
The club enjoyed a spell of both domestic and European success in the period from 1987 to 1992. During these five seasons, Mechelen won one Belgian championship and one Belgian cup title. They also finished second in the Belgian league twice and lost the Belgian Cup final twice. After winning the domestic cup title in 1987, and hence qualifying for the European Cup Winners' Cup, they completed the extraordinary achievement of winning this tournament in 1988.[3] Coached byAad de Mos, the well balanced team with international players likeMichel Preud'Homme,Lei Clijsters,Erwin Koeman,Marc Emmers andEli Ohana defeatedAjax in the final 1–0.[5] In the 1988–89 season, the team also won theEuropean Super Cup against another Dutch side,PSV Eindhoven. Mechelen are the last Belgian team that has won a European trophy.[6]
KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman John Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. A few years in a row,Anderlecht, located in nearby Brussels, attracted top players from Mechelen such asGraeme Rutjes,Johnny Bosman,Marc Emmers,Bruno Versavel,Philippe Albert andGlen de Boeck. Coach de Mos also made the switch.[7]
In 1997, Mechelen finished second to last again, and was therefore relegated to theSecond Division.[8]
On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to theBelgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the final of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 toGenk. One year after that, they stranded in the semi-finals with a 2–2 draw and a 1–0 loss against KAA Gent.
After a successful 2010 and four seasons for the yellow reds, coach Peter Maes decided to leave Malinwa and signed a four-year contract withLokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes.Marc Brys was coach ofFC Den Bosch, a second division team in the Netherlands. After two seasons he was sacked and Harm Van Veldhoven was appointed for the 2012–13 season. Van Veldhoven also could not lead KV Mechelen to Play-off 1, the clubs' recent unspoken ambition. He was fired in December 2013. At the end of the 2013–14 season KV Mechelen appointedAleksandar Janković as head coach. Despite Janković's inability to lead the club to Play-off 1, Janković left for topclubStandard Liège and Mechelen had to appoint a new manager. The club ended up choosingYannick Ferrera for the vacant job, who had just been fired as manager of Standard Liège.
2017 through 2019 proved to be a tumultuous period for the club. After eleven seasons at the highest level, the club was relegated on the last day of the2017–18 season as a 2–0 win overWaasland-Beveren left them in last place on goal difference, due to Eupen beating Moeskroen by a bigger margin (4–0). During the following season, while the club was very successful on the pitch, winning both the2018–19 Belgian First Division B and the2018–19 Belgian Cup, the2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal emerged in which the club was accused of match-fixing their final match of the 2017–18 season, allegedly having attempted to bribe certain players and officials of Waasland-Beveren.[9]
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In March 2019, the club was found guilty and forced to relegate back to the First Division B despite winning promotion, and also denied to take part in the2019–20 Belgian Cup and2019–20 UEFA Europa League, the latter for which they had qualified by winning the cup. The club appealed the decision at the Belgian Arbitration Court for Sports which ruled on 10 July 2019 that, in accordance with the rules set by theRoyal Belgian Football Association, relegation was not a possible punishment in the circumstances. As a result, the club was punished with a one-season ban from European football and the Belgian Cup. The proceedings were plagued with controversy, with evidence (including witness statements) from an investigation into financial crimes in Belgian football not being made available during these disciplinary proceedings, as well as the impartiality of the prosecutor being called into question.[10]
In May 2019, more than 30 years after their last major trophy, second division side Mechelen won the Belgian Cup after a 2-1 victory overGent in thefinal at theKing Baudouin Stadium.[11]Germán Mera scored the winning goal afterNikola Storm made the equalizer.[12]
KV Mechelen's most traditional rival isRacing Mechelen. However the two have sparingly met in the modern era, the last time in 2005, where the game had to be stopped due to crowd violence.[13] Traditionally KV Mechelen was the club of the catholic elite in the city while Racing was set up by the secular, liberal classes, with nationalist sympathies.[14] KV Mechelen has since taken on a more broader support from the Antwerp province and beyond while Racing's support has died down due to being in inferior divisions.
KV Mechelen also have a rivalry with football clubs from the neighbouring town ofLier (mainlyLierse SK and its successors).[15] They additionally have a rivalry withBeerschot Antwerp,[16] which was heightened during the Match fixing scandal of 2017–2019, due to Mechelen's promotion instead of Beerschot despite being found guilty of match fixing in the previous season.[17]
KV Mechelen'sBelgian Cup win in 1987 saw the club participate inUEFA club competition for the first time in their history, entering the1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup. It proved to be a highly successful campaign, with Mechelen reaching the final undefeated by winning seven of their eight matchesen route. They then went on to defeatAjax 1–0 in the final, Piet den Boer scoring the decisive goal early in the second half.[18] The following season Mechelen played1988 European Cup winnersPSV in theUEFA Super Cup, and defeated the Dutch side 3–1 on aggregate. Mechelen remain the last Belgian club team to have won a European club competition.[19]
| Competition | A | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Cup / UEFA Champions League | 1 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 2 | 17 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 8 |
| UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League | 4 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 14 | 15 |
| UEFA Super Cup | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
A = appearances, GP = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.
| Season | Competition | Round | Country | Club | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987–88 | UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 1R |  | Dinamo București | 1–0, 2–0 |
| 2R |  | St Mirren | 0–0, 2–0 | ||
| 1/4 |  | Dinamo Minsk | 1–0, 1–1 | ||
| 1/2 |  | Atalanta | 2–1, 2–1 | ||
| F |  | Ajax | 1–0 | ||
| 1988 | UEFA Super Cup | F | | PSV | 3–0, 0–1 |
| 1988–89 | UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 1R |  | Avenir Beggen | 5–0, 3–1 |
| 2R |  | Anderlecht | 1–0, 2–0 | ||
| 1/4 |  | Eintracht Frankfurt | 1–0, 0–0 | ||
| 1/2 | | Sampdoria | 2–1, 0–3 | ||
| 1989–90 | European Cup | 1R |  | Rosenborg | 5–0, 0–0 |
| 2R |  | Malmö FF | 4–1, 0–0 | ||
| 1/4 | | Milan | 0–0, 0–2 (AET) | ||
| 1990–91 | UEFA Cup | 1R |  | Sporting CP | 2–2, 0–1 |
| 1991–92 | UEFA Cup | 1R |  | PAOK | 0–1, 1–1 |
| 1992–93 | UEFA Cup | 1R | | Örebro SK | 2–1, 0–0 |
| 2R | | Vitesse | 0–1, 0–1 | ||
| 1993–94 | UEFA Cup | 1R | | IFK Norrköping | 1–1 (AET), 1–0 |
| 2R |  | MTK Hungária | 5–0, 1–1 | ||
| 3R | | Cagliari | 1–3, 0–2 |
European Cup/UEFA Champions League:
UEFA Super Cup(1):
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Burkina Faso
Albert De CleynMarino SabbadiniMichel Preud'hommeLei ClijstersKoen SandersPhilippe AlbertTheo CustersMarc WilmotsChristian KabaseleBjorn VleminckxMats RitsChristian BentekeIsrael
| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Head Coach | Vacant |
| Assistant Coach | Frédéric VanderbiestGunter Van Handenhoven |
| Goalkeeping coach | Stef Pauwels |
| Physical coach |  Thibaut Meyer |
| Rehabilitation coach | Dennes De Kegel |
| Physiotherapist | Bart De Bruyn Dieter Devaere Iris De Clercq |
| Doctor | Christophe Sintebin Hendrik Gevers Robin Van Houdt |
| Kit manager | Marc Bols Paul Weemaes |
| Team manager | Greet De Jagher |
| Video analyst | Jordi Jansen |
Désiré Bourgeois (1947–53), (1954–55)Albert De Cleyn (1955–57)Émile Stijnen (1959–61)
Oliver Gaspar (1960–64)András Dolgos (1965–68)Piet Teughels (1968–69)
Keith Spurgeon (1969–70)Staf Van den Bergh (1970–75)André Bollen (1975–77)John Talbut (1977–78)Piet Teughels (1979)
Nedeljko Bulatović (1979–81)Kamiel Van Damme (1981–82)Leo Canjels (1982–85)Ernst Künnecke (1985–86)Aad de Mos (1 February 1986 – 30 June 1989)Ruud Krol,Fi Van Hoof (1 July 1989 – 14 January 1990)Fi Van Hoof (1990–91)Georges Leekens (1 July 1991 – 30 June 1992)Fi Van Hoof (1992–94)Walter Meeuws (1 July 1994 – 1 August 1995)Walter Meeuws,Willy Reynders (1995–96)Willy Reynders,Georges Heylens (1996–97)Franky Vercauteren (1997 – June 30, 1998)Rudy Verkempinck,Gunther Jacob &Valère Billen (1998–99)Gunther Jacob (1999–00)L. Clijsters,V. Billen &B. Hulshoff (1 July 2000 – 30 June 2001)Barry Hulshoff,Fi Van Hoof (2001–02)Stéphane Demol,Alex Czerniatynski (30 November 2002 – 30 June 2003)Alex Czerniatynski (2003–04)Rik Vande Velde,
Živica Kanački (1 July 2004 – 25 January 2005)André Wetzel,Živica Kanački (2005 – June 30, 2006)Peter Maes (1 July 2006 – 30 June 2010)Marc Brys (1 July 2010 – 30 June 2012)Harm van Veldhoven (1 July 2012 – 30 December 2013)Franky Vercauteren (5 January 2014 – 5 May 2014)Aleksandar Janković (8 May 2014 – 6 September 2016)Yannick Ferrera (12 September 2016 – 22 October 2017)Aleksandar Janković (2 November 2017 – Jan 2018)Dennis van Wijk (Jan 2018 – Aug 2018)Wouter Vrancken (Aug 2018 – May 2022)Danny Buijs (1 June 2022 – 17 October 2022)Steven Defour (17 October 2022 – 2 November 2023)
Besnik Hasi (8 November 2023 – 3 March 2025)Fredje "the beast" vanderbiest (aug 2025)
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(in Flemish)| 1960s | |
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| 1970s | |
| 1980s | |
| 1990s | |
