When we say Beringen, you say...? Right, Mijnstadium! We already attempted to have a look at this stadium a couple of times but every time we ended up in front of a closed door without the possibility to enter via an alternative way. But thanks to D Fufo Beringen we were able to finally visit this wonderful stadium.
The Mijnstadium is a pure beauty and probably one of the greatest stadiums in the province of Limburg. This stadium was originally built in 1925 for K Beringen FC. It saw a lot of great football in the national divisions and even European games and national football. Lately it's only being used for neighbourhood projects and regional ladies football.
The legendary team of K Beringen FC was founded in 1924 as Cercle Sportif Kleine Heide, but was quickly changed into Beeringen FC a year later when they joined the Belgian football association. They started off in the lowest regional leagues, but it was just a matter of time before this team popped up in the national leagues. Their first national appearance was in 1936 in third division. They stayed there until 1943 when they promoted to second division. In 1947 the team name was changed into Beringen FC and two years later they promoted to first division for the first time. In 1952 the name was changed back into K Beeringen FC. Throughout the 50s the team would go up and down between first and second division.
But then the glorious 60s began... In 1964 they were second in first division and played European football. The years after the status wasn't confirmed but they kept playing in first division. In the early 70s they dropped to second division, but they quickly returned. After changing the name back to K Beringen FC they stayed in first division for ten years. As of 1984 they started tumbling down. That year they relegated to second division and in 1988 they relegated to third division for the first time in over 40 (!!) years. In 1995 they even fell back to fourth division. The last years of the last millennium were the start of the end of the team. In 2002 they had to go through a merge with the neighbouring KVV Vigor Beringen. The new team was now called KVK Beringen. Unfortunately the matricule number of K Beringen FC was deleted.
KVV Vigor Beringen was founded in 1913 (and was in fact older than K Beringen FC) as Voetbal Vereniging Vigor Beringen. Up until 1942 they played in the regional leagues. That year they first promoted to the national leagues, where they had to play against K Beringen FC. But KVV Vigor Beringen was less successful. In 1948 they relegated back to the regional leagues. Throughout the 50s the team went up and down between fourth division and the regional leagues. As of the 60s up until 1997 KVV Vigor Beringen stayed in the regional leagues. In 1997 they finally were able to return to fourth division (after almost 40 years) where they had to play against the legendary K Beringen FC again. In 2001 they relegated back to the regional leagues, but in 2002 they underwent the earlier mentioned merge.
After one year on fourth division the new team already relegated to the regional leagues. Up until now they still do. The fans of KVV Vigor Beringen didn't support the merge and most of them abandoned the newly created team. At first KVK Beringen stayed in the Mijnstadium (which was the homeground of K Beringen FC from 1925 up until 2002), but after two years they were shown the door. In 2004 K Beringen Heusden-Zolder SK moved to the stadium and due to that KVK Beringen had to move out. They went to the old homeground of KVV Vigor Beringen (the Motbemden). Unfortunately K Beringen Heusden-Zolder SK went bankrupt in 2006, so after only two years the majestic Mijnstadium was left abandoned. The next couple of years the stadium was mainly used for international games of the youth teams of the Red Devils.
But lately the stadium is getting more and more attention again. In 2014 the TV series Spitsbroers was filmed there and last summer there was an exhibition match between old players of K Beringen FC and KFC Diest to celebrate the 90th birthday of K Beringen FC. Beringen won the game with 4 to 1. And recently the ladies team Dames Fufo Beringen started playing in the Mijnstadium. This ladies team was founded in 2009 and climbed to the highest regional leagues this season. Thanks to this team this magnificent stadium is finally being used for competition again.
Some former players of K Beringen FC were Julien Cools, Jos Heyligen and Wilfried Van Moer. Former players of KVK Beringen are Tibor Balog and Mirek Waligora.
