Our last stop for now in the Dender area. We were only missing the "V" in FCV Dender EH. This actually stands for Verbroedering, derived from the former team Verbroedering Denderhoutem.
After the merger between FC Denderleeuw and Eendracht Hekelgem in 2001, the plan was still to create one bigger team in the Dender area. Both FC Denderleeuw and Eendracht Hekelgem were playing in second division at the time of the merger. Verbroedering Denderhoutem was in third division back then. After FC Denderleeuw EH relegated to third division in 2004, everything was ready for a final merger with Verbroedering Denderhoutem.
Verbroedering was founded in 1943 and played in the regional leagues for a number of decades. When the 80s began the team started to promote to the higher divisions. They went up and down between fourth division and the highest regional league in the 80s and 90s, but by the end of the millennium Verbroedering became a constant team in the national leagues. In 1998 they promoted to third division for a very first time and up until the merger in 2005 they would only fall back to fourth once, winning that league immediately.
In 2005 the final merger happened and FCV Dender EH was born. The team kept playing with the matricule number of Verbroedering Denderhoutem, so it's in fact a continuation of Verbroedering. But they physically moved to the grounds of FC Denderleeuw.
Not long after this merger there was a new team founded in Denderhoutem to fill in the spot Verbroedering Denderhoutem left; SK Denderhoutem. They started using the abandoned grounds of Verbroedering and up until now they are still playing in the regional leagues.
Very remarkable to know; last year SK Denderhoutem was the first team in Belgium to win the championship (in 7th division). They did that in February already. Now they are facing a challenge in 6th division, but after having talked to them they expressed their high hopes for that season.
