Nicknamed The Purple and White

By BlueBlood
September 12 2005

Chelsea's first opponents in this season's Champions League are Anderlecht from the Belgian capital Brussels and are officially known as Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht (RSC Anderlecht). They are the current Belgium Champions winning the Belgian title twenty-seven times.

But what else do you know about RSC Anderlecht?

Chelsea and Anderlecht have never met in European competition.

In 1908 the club was founded as Sporting Club Anderlechtois in a cafe by passionate football fans (rue d'Aumale) in Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels. In their first game they beat a team called Institut Saint-Georges, 11-8. In 1909 the secretary of the club decided that the team was good enough and the club was accepted into the regional leagues and by the end of the 1913 season Anderlecht had finished fourth in the Belgian second division behind teams such as: Uccle Sport, RC Mechelen and KV Mechelen.

Anderlecht's first championship came in 1947. Anderlecht won their first Belgian Cup in 1965. Anderlecht have also won the Belgian Super Cup six times, the first being in 1985. Anderlecht are twice winners of the now defunct European Cup Winners' Cup in 1976 and 1978. They have won the UEFA Cup once in 1983 and lastly Anderlecht has won the European Super Cup twice in 1976 and 1978.

Anderlecht has played British opposition in previous European competitions. In 1970 in the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (now UEFA Cup) they defeated Dunfermline and Newcastle United, before losing to Arsenal in a two-legged final. In 1976 Anderlecht won the Cup WInners Cup and en route defeated Wrexham and in the final West Ham United 4-2 which was played at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.

One of Anderlecht's Super Cup victories came against Liverpool.

In 1984 on route to the UEFA Cup final against Tottenham, Anderlecht won a controversial semi-final against Nottingham Forest. After losing the first leg 2-0, Anderlecht won the return amidst allegations of bribery by the Anderlecht President at the time, Constant Vanden Stock, 3-0. Tottenham won the final at White Hart Lane in a penalty shoot-out. The hero being goalkeeper Tony Parks.

The scandal of the semi-final was discovered in the Belgian newspapers in September 1997. UEFA decided to ban Anderlecht from the European competitions for one year - 1998-99. But a decision by TAS (the Court of Sports Arbitration, a sports tribunal set up by the International Olympic Committee) overturned the ban.