Football Club Verbroedering Dender Eendracht Hekelgem, also simply known as Dender or F.C.V. Dender, is a Belgian professional football club based in Denderleeuw. The club plays the 2025-26 season in the Belgian top division, the Pro League, after winning two promotions in three seasons. They rose to the top flight in the 2023-24 season by finishing 2nd in the Challenger Pro League that season.
The club is named after former clubs KFC Denderleeuw Eendracht Hekelgem and Verbroedering Denderhoutem, which merged at the end of the 2004–05 season, and after the river Dender, which crosses the town of Denderleeuw. The home stadium of the club is Florent Beeckmanstadion, located in Denderleeuw. Their best league ranking was the 15th place in the first division (in 2007–08 and 2008–09). The club colours are blue, red, white and black.
History
Early history
Verbroedering Denderhoutem was founded in 1935[3] and registered to the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1943. They first reached the Promotion (4th-highest level in Belgian football) in the 1980s.[4] After several relegations and promotions in the provincial leagues and Promotion, the club finally reached the third division in 1998–99. They remained at that level except for one season in 2003–04 when they played in the Promotion. After one season back at the third level, Denderhoutem merged with fellow club KFC Denderleeuw EH from the third division.
Rise to the top tier
Verbroedering Dender won consecutively the third division A title (in 2005–06) and the second division title (in 2006–07), to reach the first division in 2007–08 for the first time in their history. They achieved promotion after beating Dessel 0–2 on the second division's 33rd match day on 13 May 2007. They finished at the 15th place in 2007–08 and again in 2008–09, though the club was relegated at the end of the 2008–09 season because the number of clubs in the first division was reduced from 18 to 16.
Post–top division history
The club was relegated from the Second Division in the 2011–12 season after finishing second bottom.
They won promotion back to the second tier, now renamed the Challenger Pro League, in the 2021–22 season. The promotion was not without controversy. On the penultimate game of the promotion play-offs against RFC Liège on 22 May 2022, Dender lost 1–0 which saw them move into second place and Liège move to first place. The following day, it was announced that Liège would receive a three-point deduction and a €1000 fine after failing to field enough U21 players in their 3–0 win against Dender back in March 2022.[5] As a result, Dender were awarded a 5–0 win and moved back to the top of the table. Liège released a statement to say that they would be appealing the decision.[6] However, the points deduction would turn out to be irrelevant. This is because Liège lost on the final game of the season against Knokke, while Dender won 1–0 against Dessel Sport.[7]
Return to top flight
Dender won promotion back to the Belgian Pro League in the 2023–24 season. They finished second in the Challenger Pro League to secure their promotion. This meant it would be the first time that the club had played in the top flight since 2009.[8] Before the start of the season, the club was dealt with the blow of the departure of manager Timmy Simons who left to join fellow top tier side Westerlo.[9]Vincent Euvrard, then manager of Zulte Waregem, was appointed manager of the club. The club would stay up in their first season in the top flight, finishing 12th. The next season, Euvrard would leave to join fellow pro league club Standard Liège. Hayk Milkon, assistant manager of Club Brugge, would become their manager in their 2nd season in the top flight.
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