Studying at Lotto Park, Home of Belgian Football Legends

The Belgian Big Three is the nickname of the three most successful football clubs in the country.

Standard Liège and Club Brugge are two of them. The third is R.S.C. Anderlecht.

Having won the Belgian top flight 34 times, the Brussels club is the most successful in the country. It was founded in 1908.

Since 1917, the club has played its home games at Lotto Park— a 21,500 seater stadium in the Anderlecht region of the Belgian capital.

But it isn’t just Les Mauve et Blanc who get to visit the stadium every week.

GIS students studying the Postgraduate Diploma in International Football Business are based in the stadium, with expertly-taught lectures delivered with a view of the historic pitch.

Previously called the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium after the legendary chairman of 25 years, Lotto Park has witnessed the club at its peak during the over 100 years it has called the stadium home.

The club’s first league title came in 1946-47 when they finished two points clear at the top of the table, and 14 ahead of fierce rivals Standard Liège.

This seemed to spark something within the club. They went on to win three more in a row. A clear sign of things to come, the club then won six in a row in the 1960s, led by possibly the greatest Belgian player of all time.

Paul Van Himst is the personification of these glory days. Scoring 234 goals in 456 games for the club, Van Himst is an R.S.C. Anderlecht icon, winning eight league titles (and a ninth as Anderlecht’s manager), four Belgian Golden Shoes, as well as a fourth-place Ballon d’Or finish in 1965 as the club—you guessed it— lifted the league trophy.

Lotto Park has also seen continental success. This began in 1976 when the club won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, doing so again in 1978 before winning the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) in 1983.

Someone who knows the history of the club inside out is Pieter de Smedt. A GIS student, Pieter is a lifelong Anderlecht fan who studied at the stadium as part of his programme. He has also been an intern at the club for 11 months now, and says “It’s an incredible feeling contributing to the club I support.” 

“I’m working on a couple of projects,” he said. “The first is analysing the fan shop – looking at what we are selling, the opening hours , and whether it makes sense to keep the shop open during the week or extend its hours.

“I’m also digging into larger invoices to better understand them and determine what we need to pay to the Belgian Association. Additionally, I’ll be working on projects related to transfers. 

Astrid Park, a nickname for the stadium, has also held international football. The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship was held in Belgium across three cities and four venues, with the stadium (called the Stade Émile Versé at the time) hosting the Hungary vs Soviet Union Semi-final, which the latter won.

A historic stadium in the heart of the Anderlecht community, Lotto Park is one of the country’s leading football grounds, and you can be a part of it.

Whether you’re an R.S.C. Anderlecht fan like Pieter, or want to expand your footballing portfolio like fellow-student Matthieu Struyf, discover how you can look over the pitch played on by some of Europe’s best talent on our course page.

Article by Zakaria Anani