Sint-Martens-Latem is mainly known for two things. A lot of painters/artists spent their days in this village to capture the beautiful nature with the river Leie, and the past few decades a lot of luxurious villas were built there. But there's football to be found as well. Discover the stadium on the Hoge Heirweg together with us.
Before and during WWII there were a couple of teams playing friendlies (Louf, Haelemeersch and Vlaamse Penne), but it wasn't until 1954 before there was an official team that became a member of the Belgian FA (in 1955) as well. That year Football Club Sint-Martens-Latem was created, but the team is often referred to and more known as FC Latem. The first year they didn't immediately join the regular divisions, but in 1956 they finally started off in the lowest regional league in East Flanders; the third lowest at that time.
Latem wouldn't be Latem if there wasn't any ambition in the team and pretty soon they wanted to go higher up. In 1962 they celebrated their first promotion and for a number of years they went up and down between the second and third regional league. As of 1967 FC Latem became more consistent and for ten years they worked on getting a promotion to the top regional league. This finally happened in 1977. Hard work pays off. One year later already they managed to go to the national divisions for the very first time.
Their national story only lasted two years unfortunately as in 1982 FC Latem relegated back to the regional leagues. The next 40 (more or less) years they would go up and down, but most of the times FC Latem played the second highest regional league. Since 2019 they are back in the top regional league and who knows national football will be brought back to the Hoge Heirweg.
FC Latem has been playing in the Hoge Heirweg since the early 70s. It's a well maintained stadium, fully equipped to handle national football including floodlights, a nice seated grandstand (love the wood) and a lot of terracing available. Nice looking stadium with more support than you'd expect these days.