SVV Red Star Gent (full name: Socialistische Voetbalvereniging Red Star Gent, abbrevation RSG) is a football team in Belgium. The team currently plays in league VI.580 of the Belgian Competition. Since 2013, they have a second team in Suriname, Rode Ster Paramaribo. The current team number was received in September 2016, after a restart when the former team was stopped on Hattrick earlier that year.
SVV Red Star Gent started in Hattrick on 18-08-2009. The team was founded by a group of socialists in the city of Ghent, who wanted to combine their political activity with their passion for football. Lunacharsky was elected as manager for the team. The team was first officialy named SVV Red Star Gent.
When RSG was founded (as Rode Ster Gent, the team played only the last round of Global Season 39 in competition IX.1432. The match against SKDH United ended in a 2-2 draw, placing RSB fifth in the competition.
SVV Red Star Gent (then: Red Star Gent started her first full season on September 13th 2009 against United KV. RSG won easily 3-0, and immediatly showed their claims on the title for the season. However, because of two defeats against human competitor SKDH United on the second and before last matchday, RSG remained on the second position through the whole competition. Joël Crahay became topscorer with 13 goals.
The climb to the top - move to Brussels
Red Star Brussels played in division VIII.255 starting from Season 41. They performed rather well, and where able to take the first position in the competition after the seventh matchday. The team promoted to Division VII. By the end of the season, it became clear that a majority of the new supporters came from Brussels and the Walloon area, and that the team's political profile attracted large layers of foreign supporters. Therefore, the team decided to move to the Brussels town of Elsene by the end of the Season. The team started in Division VII.578, starting from Season 42. Again, they immediatly promoted that season by again winning the competition. They arrived in competition VI.449 in Season 43, and suprisingly reached the second position in the classement after an excellent season, where RSB dominated the league for most of the season. The second season in League VI.449, RSB stayed in the half of the classement, and ended fourth. The team would still stay in VI.449 for three more seasons, after it promoted to the fifth division, playing in Division V.189.
Fifth or sixth division
In League V.189, it became soon clear that the fifth division of the Belgian championship was much more difficult then the sixth division, and that the team didn't have the strenght to guarantee the maintain in this competition. Despite some good results earlier in Season 47, the team was condemned to a degradation playoff later in the season, in which it lost 1-3 against Pickass United!. The team fell back to division six. The team would remain in sixth division for another 3 seasons, although winning the league in the last two occasions. The first time, they - consciountly - didn't promote back to fifth division, the second time, in Season 50, they overclassed their competition so much, that they automatically promoted, and ended up in League V.231. This time, the promotion was much more stable, and in the very first year in 5th, a third place in the league was obtained.
Closing and reopening of the team
Early 2016, then SVV Red Star Brussels was closed, after a period of inactivity from manager User:Lunacharsky. On September 18th 2016, the team was refounded as SVV Red Star Gent, and started Season 63.
Name & Slogan
Team Name
The current name "Red Star Gent" was introduced on September 18th 2016, when the team was recreated in Gent. The name was adopted originally on September 15th 2009, when a poll amongst supporters decided to adopt "SVV Red Star Gent" as the official name of the team. Other possibilities where "Rode Ster Gent" or "Red Star Ghent". The supporters decided to take an international stand by choosing Red Star in the name of team, thus making the meaning of this part of name understandable for international supporters. They also choose to take up the official local name of the city where the team was founded: Gent (instead of Ghent in English).
Before that day, the team was first called "Rode Ster Gent". Because the Belgian Season 27 had already started, the new official name came into effect during the midseason between Season 27 and Season 28. Later, from April 2010 to early 2016, the team was called "SVV Red Star Brussels".
Slogan
The official slogan of the team is "Nixor, Concordia, Socialisma", or "Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism". It is also the slogan of the trotskyist party LSP, of which most supporters are members. The slogan expresses the sportive rivalry and competition between football teams, while on the same time stressing on the class unity between all workers of different teams, or like President Jan Verhamme of the supporters' association put it: "Football rivalry is for one evening, class solidarity is forever"
Team colours, logo and kit
Team colours
The basic team color of Red Star Brussels is red. Yellow and beige are used as secondary colors. The exact offical colours can be found in this overview:
Use
Color Name
Ex.
Primary Color
Dark Red
Red Star
Red
Secundary Color
Beige
Secundary Color
Yellow
Secundary Color
Creamy White
Logo
The Red Star Gent logo is a red shield, showing a red star in the middle, and surrounded by the rose in the fist of socialism. The shield is surrouned with banners citing the name of the team and the slogan. It replaces the old logo of a red star on a beige shield, surrounded by text banners citing the name of the team and the slogan.
The original logo was developed by fumiasty, a Polish player who used to manage Niezatapialne Pasikoniki(1825862). The logo was adapted to the new name Red Star Brussels by Canadian player Oshawa, who manages Oshawa Ogre(107171), during the period the team played in Brussels. Staff, players and supporters of Red Star Brussels are eternally grateful for the professional logo.
A history of the Red Star Gent kits can be found at this page.
Supporters and official fan club
Revolutionair Socialisten
Red Star Gent fans during the first ever official competition match at home against United KV on September 13th, 2009.
The official fan club of Red Star Gent is called "Revolutionair Socialisten" (or "Revolutionary Socialists" in English). Most of the members come from working-class neighbourhoods in Ghent, Brussels or the rest of Belgium, and some of them are marxist students from Ghent University. The fanclub currently has about 500 members. Red Star Brussels has an increasing number of international supporters.
RSGent supporters are well known socialists, many are members of political parties like the trotskyist LSP. They often fraternise with fanclubs from other socialist teams, like Trotskijs Kämpar in Sweden or Leninska Zvezda in Bulgaria. The "Revolutionair Socialisten" are known for their militant antiracist, antisexist and antidiscrimination attitude.
Supporters
Red Star Gent currently has 4 Hattrick Users as an official supporter.
België
Away
Leonardo Rubén Tasca
