RBC Roosendaal

Roosendaal Boys Combinatie, commonly abbreviated to RBC (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌɛrbeːˈseː]), is a Dutch football club based in Roosendaal, North Brabant. RBC currently plays in the Vierde Klasse, the eight tier of football in the Netherlands, after a bankruptcy in 2011, subsequently restarting the club and winning promotion in their first season.

History

RBC, the brainchild of Frans Mathijsen and Anton Poldermans, was formed on July 31, 1912. The club was initially called Excelsior and was renamed VV Roosendaal in 1920. The club's present name is the result of a merger with another football team. On July 16, 1927, the club became known as Roosendaal Boys Combinatie (RBC) because of the merger with Roosendaalsche Boys.

In 1955 the club turned professional and won the Tweede Divisie B in 1957. With the leagues restructured by the KNVB the club left professional football in 1971. Between the return to professional status in 1983 RBC was a successful amateurclub.

In 2000 the club reached the Eredivisie for the first time just for one season. Before 2001, RBC played its league games in stadium De Luiten, which had a capacity of 2,000 seats and 5,000 standing places. In 2001, RBC moved into its new 5,000 seater stadium. RBC returned in the Eredivisie in 2002 for four seasons.

Roosendaal

Roosendaal [ˈroːzə(n)daːl] is both a city and a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.

Towns/villages of the municipality

The city of Roosendaal

Roosendaal goes back to the 12th and 13th century. The name Rosendaele was first mentioned in a document of 1268. Roosendaal was always a part of North Brabant. In the Middle Ages, Roosendaal grew as a result of the turf business, but the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) put an end to the growth as Roosendaal and Wouw were suffering from itinerant combat troops that plundered and ravaged everything they came across. For decades the countryside of Roosendaal was abandoned.

Under King Lodewijk Napoléon of the Kingdom of Holland, Roosendaal received city rights in 1809.

The leading soccer team of the city is RBC Roosendaal.

The official International ABBA Fan club has been based in Roosendaal since 1986, and since the turn of the century, the city has also played host to the annual convention of the International ABBA Fan Club where for one weekend every April, hundreds of people from all over the world attend the event.