Gent rewrites football history with oldest club in Belgium. A historical study shows that the club was active for at least eleven years. The discovery is based on a crucial article from La Flandre Libérale on September 28, 1886. The article mentions the rapid development of football in Gent since 1883 and at least seven clubs that emerged in the preceding years. Four of these clubs were still active in 1886, with a total of 125 players. The oldest club – which played six matches in 1886 – was 'le Football Club', explicitly dated to 1875. 'As long as no older, comparable sources are found in other cities, Gent can historically prove that 'le Football Club' (1875) was the first football association in Belgium.' Wim Beelaert, KAA Gent Foundation 1875 as the founding year sets the Belgian football canon on its head. 1875 is five years before the founding of the Antwerp Athletic Club (1880), which grew into Antwerp FC in 1887, and seven years before the founding of the Brussels Football Club (1882). That the first Belgian inter-city football matches were played around 1890 between Antwerp and Brussels can also be refuted. On March 4, 1886, a match took place between the Gentse 'le Football Club' and 'Bruges'. This shows that football was also played in Brugge before 1890. Unique sources point to local anchoring. Not only does the 1886 newspaper article support this conclusion. Original club documents have also been preserved. An invitation to the general meeting of June 26, 1879 of 'le Football Club' (Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, BIB.VLBL.HFI.F.035.17) is now considered the oldest primary source of a Belgian football club. Together with other documents, they sketch a picture of the operation between 1879 and 1886. The founders of 'le Football Club' were inspired by the new modern English sports. In 1884, the association also played tennis and cricket. However, no indications were found that 'le Football Club' in Gent was founded by British or Irish young people, as was the case in Brussels, Antwerp, and Brugge. 'Le Football Club' grew in the then-Gentish French-speaking progressive-liberal environment, the new elite that emerged through industrialization. A mention in the Journal de Gand in October 1885 refers to a collection during a supper of the Football Club, organized in the circle of 'L'Avenir', a liberal movement that supported education and community life. 'Where the first football clubs in Antwerp and Brussels were founded by British and Irish young people, there are currently no indications in Gent. The names of the board members and members point to a strong local anchoring.' Wim Beelaert, KAA Gent Foundation The names of the board members and members – such as Leon De Smet, Albert Hagé, P. Donny, Ernest Nowé, and Maurice Van der Haegen – point to a strong local anchoring. The players gathered in café A la Belle Vue on the Kortrijksesteenweg, their fixed departure point