Дендер ЕХ

Early history

Verbroedering Denderhoutem was founded in 1935 and registered to the Royal Belgian Football Association in 1943. They first reached the Promotion (4th-highest level in Belgian football) in the 1980s. After several relegations and promotions in the provincial leagues and Promotion, the club finally reached the third division in 1998–99. They remained at that level except for one season in 2003–04 when they played in the Promotion. After one season back at the third level, Denderhoutem merged with fellow club KFC Denderleeuw EH from the third division.

Rise to the top tier

Verbroedering Dender won consecutively the third division A title (in 2005–06) and the second division title (in 2006–07), to reach the first division in 2007–08 for the first time in their history. They achieved promotion after beating Dessel 0–2 on the second division's 33rd match day on 13 May 2007. They finished at the 15th place in 2007–08 and again in 2008–09, though the club was relegated at the end of the 2008–09 season because the number of clubs in the first division was reduced from 18 to 16.

Post–top division history

The club was relegated from the Second Division in the 2011–12 season after finishing second bottom.

In the 2015–16 season, Dender qualified for the newly formed Belgian third tier named Belgian First Amateur Division. In the 2020–21 season, the division was renamed Belgian National Division 1 but the season was cancelled after one game due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium.

They won promotion back to the second tier, now renamed the Challenger Pro League, in the 2021–22 season. The promotion was not without controversy. On the penultimate game of the promotion play-offs against RFC Liège on 22 May 2022, Dender lost 1–0 which saw them move into second place and Liège move to first place. The following day, it was announced that Liège would receive a three-point deduction and a €1000 fine after failing to field enough U21 players in their 3–0 win against Dender back in March 2022. As a result, Dender were awarded a 5–0 win and moved back to the top of the table. Liège released a statement to say that they would be appealing the decision. However, the points deduction would turn out to be irrelevant. This is because Liège lost on the final game of the season against Knokke, while Dender won 1–0 against Dessel Sport.