Debt-ridden La Louviere, winners of the 2003 Belgian Cup, will go out of existence at the end of the season, the Belgian club's vice president Olivier Michel announced on Friday. "All the decision-makers are resigned to it. On June 27 it will be proposed that the club is struck off," Michel told local newspaper La Derniere Heure/Les Sports.
Over the past three years when they were still in the first division La Louviere's fortunes have nose-dived. Struggling now in the third division they have searched in vain for a financial backer to help them meet a reported debt mountain of three million euros. The club - whose full name is Royale Association Athletique Louvieroise - was created in 1913 and is based in the city of La Louviere in the province of Hainaut.
With no stadium to call home they had to wait until 1921 before playing their first official match. They made their first appearance in the Belgian first division in 1977. In 2006 when in the top flight the club was rocked by allegations that some of their players and board members were implicated in a match-fixing betting scam involving a Chinese businessman. As well as winning the 2003 Belgian Cup La Louviere have also finished runners-up in the Belgian SuperCup (2003) in the same year.
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