Turbulent times at Sclessin: longest streak of the Jupiler Pro League in danger?

This season too, Standard de Liège is in great shape, although historically an absolute top club. And so the question is increasingly: will everything be okay? There is a lot to do about the case.

Ten-time champion Standard has been in the doldrums in recent years, both sporting and extra-sporting. This season too, coach Ivan Leko is having difficulty getting the team on track. A matter of insufficient quality, because it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit top players?

In previous years, Standard finished sixth and fourteenth, an unprecedented low. And the flow is not yet what they might want at Sclessin: the B team of the SL16 academy was relegated from the Challenger Pro League this season.

Financial problems as the sword of Damocles over Standard

In recent years there has been a lot of fuss about the plans for a new stadium and how they should be financed, while it has become clear on several occasions that the Rouches are not in the best financial position.

777 Partners should bring a breath of fresh air to the club, but they are also clearly falling short at the moment. In the meantime, it is not even clear whether the players can still be paid this season and there are questions about the license for next season. This was granted, but licensing manager Nils Van Branteghem is said to have given negative advice.

It is not the first time that a transfer ban has been discussed. Four years ago, the club received a loan from Marouane Fellaini to guarantee continuity, but now there are problems again.

Historically a top club

Standard Liège was founded in 1898, although it is not the oldest club from the Ardent City – for that we must refer to RFC Liège, read all about it HERE regarding base number 4. But Standard is also a very old club, founded by students from the Saint-Servais College in Liège.

Eleven years later, the team entered the first division for the first time, but dropped back to the second level for a while. However, since promotion in 1921, they have been at the highest level again – no club in Belgium has been at the highest level continuously for longer.

Continuous series

Between 1909 and 1931, Maurice Dufrasne was one of the first successful chairmen to stay at the club for a long time. Under him the final entry into the first class was achieved. Later he would become the name bearer of the stadium, which we better know as Sclessin – after the district of the same name on Rue de la Centrale where the stadium is located.

It took a long time to wait for success. A number of second places were achieved, but it was not until 1954 that a prize was won for the first time with the Belgian Cup. Four years later, a title was celebrated for the first time in the Fiery Stede.

Successes

Titles number 2 and 3 followed in the early 1960s, and between 1969 and 1971 Standard was the top of the class for three seasons in a row with names such as Van Moer, Nagy, a very young Preud’homme, Thissen and Jeck.

After the somewhat bad 1970s, a new period of success emerged in the early 1980s under the leadership of Goethals, including Eric Gerets, although that glorious period was ultimately overshadowed by the Bellemans affair.

The last major successes were in 2008 and 2009, with the golden generation around Fellaini and Witsel, among others, although there have also been a few outliers in the Belgian Cup in recent seasons. Good for the honors list, but increasingly a dampener.