In Meldert, not that far away from Lebbeke/Dendermonde and Aalst, East Flanders, a very unique lost ground can be found. Although it's not (really) accessible, it's still worth a visit. The ground currently is private property of a small construction company. We tried to gain access to their garden, but we were only allowed to take pictures from the outside.
For two decades Eendracht Meldert was the only team in this small village. Eendracht Meldert began activities in 1955, but joined a Catholic FA first before joining the Belgian FA in 1960. After the creation of Thor Kokerij Meldert in 1972 the two teams would encounter each other quite regularly in the regional leagues. Both would fight to promote to the national division first and it was Eendracht Meldert that won that fight in 1995, exactly 40 years after first having played a game. In 1998 TK Meldert joined them in fourth division.
In 1999 however Eendracht relegated back to the regional leagues after having played for promotion between 1995 and 1998. One year later though they returned already and again Eendracht played for promotion to third division. Same story in 2002 and again they lost. TK Meldert entered the promotion play offs as well in 2002 and they immediately got their ticket to third division.
Eendracht took a turn for the worse though. In 2003 they relegated back to the regional leagues and in 2004, after TK relegated back to fourth division, both teams decided to create one big team in Meldert. Eendracht and Thor Kokerij became Verbroedering Meldert and continued playing under the matricule number of TK, using their stadium as well. Everything related to Eendracht disappeared and the stadium was abandoned. A few years later the ground was bought by a private company and most of the stadium was demolished. Only the wonderful grandstand remains to this day... But for how long still?
Anecdote: Filip Joos, journalist and former player of KAV Dendermonde, once played for Eendracht Meldert as well.
