Early days edit

The club was founded in 1904, a few months after the birth of city rival KRC 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 champions Anderlecht, but that was their last good season. 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.

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. Mechelen are the last Belgian team that has won a European trophy.

Since 2000 edit

KV Mechelen seemed to be on its way to becoming one of the top clubs in Belgium, but quickly declined when their chairman Cordier (who owned the rights to most of their players) was forced to sell many players due to his company's bad results. On 10 June 2007, the team achieved promotion to the Belgian First Division. Two years later in 2009, KV Mechelen played the final of the Belgian Cup, losing it 2–0 to Genk. 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 with Lokeren. Malinwa made a deal with Marc Brys to take over from Maes. Marc Brys was coach of FC 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 appointed Aleksandar Janković as head coach. Despite Janković's inability to lead the club to Play-off 1, Janković left for topclub Standard Liège and Mechelen had to appoint a new manager. The club ended up choosing Yannick Ferrera for the vacant job, who had just been fired as manager of Standard Liège.

Match-fixing and 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal edit

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 the 2017–18 season as a 2–0 win over Waasland-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 the 2018–19 Belgian First Division B and the 2018–19 Belgian Cup, the 2017–19 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. 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 the 2019–20 Belgian Cup and 2019–20 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 the Royal 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.

KV Mechelen's most traditional rival is Racing 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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 of Lier (mainly Lierse SK and its successors).^[5] They additionally have a rivalry with Beerschot Antwerp,^[6] 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.^[7]

Domestic edit

• Belgian First Division A
  • Champions (4): 1942–43, 1945–46, 1947–48, 1988–89
• Belgian Cup
  • Winners (2): 1986–87, 2018–19
• Belgian Second Division
  • Winners (7): 1925–26, 1927–28, 1962–63, 1982–83, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2018–19
• Belgian Second Division final round
  • Winners: 1981, 2007, 2019
• Belgian Third Division
  • Winners: 2004–05

International edit

• European Cup Winners Cup
  • Winners: 1987–88
• European Super Cup
  • Winners: 1988

KV Mechelen's Belgian Cup win in 1987 saw the club participate in UEFA club competition for the first time in their history, entering the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup. It proved to be a highly successful campaign, with Mechelen reaching the final undefeated by winning seven of their eight matches en route. They then went on to defeat Ajax 1–0 in the final, Piet den Boer scoring the decisive goal early in the second half.^[8] The following season Mechelen played 1988 European Cup winners PSV in the UEFA 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.^[9]

As of December 2008.

A = appearances, GP = games played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.

• Q = qualification round
• PO = play-off
• R = round
• Group = group stage / Group 1 = first group stage / Group 2 = second group stage
• 1/8 = eighth finals / 1/4 = quarter-finals / 1/2 = semi-finals
• F = final

Summary of best results edit

(2 cups)

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

- Quarter-finalists in 1990

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988

- Semi-finalists in 1989

UEFA Super Cup (1):

- Winners in 1988

Current squad edit

As of 1 February 2024^[10]

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

Out on loan edit

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

Africa

Algeria

•   Sofiane Hanni

Burkina Faso

•   Hassane Bandé

DR Congo

•   Roger Lukaku

Europe

Belgium

•   Albert De Cleyn
•   Marino Sabbadini
•   Michel Preud'homme
•   Lei Clijsters
•   Koenraad Sanders
•   Philippe Albert
•   Theo Custers
•   Marc Wilmots
•   Christian Kabasele
•   Bjorn Vleminckx
•   Mats Rits
•   Christian Benteke

Bosnia and Herzegovina

•   Edin Cocalić
•   Boris Pandža
•   Marijo Dodik
•   Senad Karahmet

Croatia

•   Ljuban Crepulja

Denmark

•   Nicklas Pedersen

Greece

•   Sotiris Ninis

Israel

•   Eli Ohana

Montenegro

•   Fatos Bećiraj

Portugal

•   Sérgio Oliveira

Sweden

•   Klas Ingesson
•   Kennet Andersson

The Netherlands

•   Piet Den Boer
•   Erwin Koeman
•   Graeme Rutjes
•   John Bosman
•   René Eijkelkamp
•   Wim Hofkens
•   Michael Verrips

As of 17 October 2022

• 2017–19 Belgian football fraud scandal

• (in Dutch) Official website
• (in Dutch) Fanclub website
• KV Mechelen at UEFA.COM
• KV Mechelen at EUFO.DE (in German)
• KV Mechelen at Weltfussball.de (in German)
• KV Mechelen at Football Squads.co.uk
• KV Mechelen at National Football Teams.com
• KV Mechelen at Football-Lineups.com