Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles

Koninklijke Football Club Rhodienne-De Hoek is a Belgian association football club based in Sint-Genesius-Rode, Flemish Brabant. The club was created in 1894 as Racing Football Club. It became a member of the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1895 as Racing Club de Bruxelles and later received the matricule n°6. It took part to the first Belgian league the same year and won 6 titles of Belgian Champion and 1 Cup until the first world war.

Then, the club declined, and in 1963, it merged with White Star Woluwé A.C. to avoid bankruptcy. The new club was then called Royal Racing White. It was decided that this club would keep the matricule N°47 of White Star Woluwé. Thus to avoid that the matricule n°6 of Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles (as it was named since 1921) was erased, the club exchanged its matricule with that of K. Sport Sint-Genesius-Rode.

Royal Racing Club de Bruxelles was founded in 1891 as an athletic club; the football section was also founded three years later. In 1895 the club became one of the founding members of both the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Belgian Pro League, dominating the league in its first 19 seasons, winning six Belgian titles along the way. RC de Bruxelles won the first Belgian Cup in 1912. After its first stint in the top division (interrupted by the first world war), the club was demoted to the second division in 1925. It later bounced around between the first and third tiers, never regaining its glory years.

The club suffered financially in later years, both on and off the field; it managed to play in the top tier for the last time (1954–55 season), but finished second from bottom at the end of the season (15th out of 16), never returning to the top again. Due to increasing financial hardships which were further compounded by heated discussions with the La Rhodienne management about ideas of a merger, Racing's management decided to formally merge the club with La Rhodienne (through switching matricule numbers) in 1963 (see next section).

...
Wikipedia