When Belgian clubs were given registration numbers in 1926, Antwerp received number one. The club had been founded in 1880 as the Antwerp Football and Cricket Club, and its football side took the name Antwerp Football Club in 1887. It still plays in red and white, and supporters still call it the Great Old.

Five titles, four cups

The trophy cabinet is smaller than the history. Antwerp were Belgian champions in 1929, 1931, 1944 and 1957, then waited 66 years for a fifth title in 2023, the same season they won the Belgian Cup for the fourth time, after 1955, 1992 and 2020. The 2020 final, a 1-0 win over Club Brugge, was the club’s first prize in 28 years. The Super Cup followed in July 2023.

Europe has given the club two dates to remember. On 12 May 1993 Antwerp lost the Cup Winners’ Cup final 3-1 to Parma at Wembley, after Francis Severeyns had equalised; no Belgian club has reached a European final since. Thirty years later the 2023 champions played their first Champions League group stage, finished bottom of their group, and still beat Barcelona 3-2 at home.

The Bosuil, one stand at a time

Antwerp have played at the Bosuil, on the Oude Bosuilbaan in the district of Deurne, since it opened on 1 November 1923. When the property developer Paul Gheysens took over in 2015, the club had spent more than ten years in the second division and the stadium was crumbling with it. Promotion came in his second season, under coach Wim De Decker. The rebuild followed: a main stand with 5,600 seats, a restaurant and 18 boxes, put up in about 20 weeks, and a new Stand 4 in 2021.

The last gap was Stand 2, the old stand along the east side, which had stood empty for years. Demolition began in May 2025. In its place the club built a stand of its own for €12.5 million, with 4,700 standing places below and 4,000 seats above, on a permit that runs for ten years. It opened on 7 December 2025 for the home match against Genk, and lifted the Bosuil’s capacity from 16,144 to 21,000. The city would have liked something permanent. “Antwerp has chosen a cheaper solution and is not committing for the long term,” said alderman Patrick Janssens when the permit was granted. “That is a pity in itself, but the stand has been empty for so long that this is a big step forward for the club.”

Janssens was right on both counts, and the club was right to build anyway: 5,000 more supporters on a Sunday is worth more to Antwerp than a perfect stand in a plan nobody can pay for. The club holds the land under a building right that runs to 2052, so there is time for the permanent version.

New owners, old debts

Gheysens’ eleven years ended in July 2026. His property group, Ghelamco, had come under heavy financial pressure, and a loan from the hedge fund Fasanara had put part of the club at risk. A consortium led by Wouter Vandenhaute, the former Anderlecht chairman, bought all of his shares, with the former Antwerp and Belgium defender Toby Alderweireld among a group of Antwerp supporters taking minority stakes. Vandenhaute is the main shareholder but not the chairman: that job went to Jacques Vandermeiren, the former chief executive of the port, with Sven Jaecques staying on as chief executive. Several million euros of debt still have to be repaid or refinanced in the coming years.

Getting to a match is simpler than paying for a stadium. Tram 5 stops at Deurne Antwerp Stadion and Hermans, bus 19 at Bosuilplein, and bicycles go in the racks by Stand 1. Parking at the ground is for season-ticket holders only; everyone else is sent to the Gosselin site nearby, which is free for cars carrying at least three people. Tickets for home matches at the Bosuil are sold through the club’s own website.

The away fans now have Stand 3 to themselves. The home fans have the other three, and the number one.