Tamines and Sambreville are well known in the national divisions in Belgium. Several teams of that area already played in third and fourth division and today there still is a team on that level.
We went to visit Stade Communal in Tamines, which forms a part of the bigger Sambreville. Royale Entente Sambreville used to be the player of the stadium. It was founded in 1905 as Cercle Sportif Tamines. Up until 1921 they never really made a difference. That year they merged with Union FC Tamines to become Entente Tamines and also became a member of the RBFA.
That merge proved to be a success as in 1923 they reached second division, which was at that time the lowest national division. This wouldn't last long, but after the creation of third division in 1926 they were back at national level. Yet again this only lasted for one season. Until 1934 the team would go up and down between third and fourth division. During the next twenty years regional football would be their territory. In the 50s they would start to go up and down again, this time between fourth and fifth as fourth division had became a national level a few years earlier. As of 1965 they would stay in regional level again for thirty years.
Only in 1995 they would return to the national leagues again. In 1997 they merged with Royale Union Sportive Falisolle and changed their name into Royale Entente Sambreville. This proved to be the beginning of the end. In 1999 they reached the play offs for a ticket in third division, but they lost it and the year after they ended up being last in fourth division. In 2000 the team ceased to exist. The exact reason why is unknown. The same year though the neighbouring Royale Moignelée Sports moved from Moignelée to Tamines to play in Stade Communal and changed their name into Royale Union Sambrevilloise.
This team only played once in the national leagues. Up until this day they still play in the lower levels and it's a shame to see this stadium won't be seeing any national football anytime soon. Irony - irony... RJS Taminoise reached the national levels for the first time in their history in 2002 and has been playing there ever since.
