About K Waterschei SV Thor

K Waterschei SV Thor Genk was a Belgian football club based in Genk, Limburg, founded in 1919 by mining workers. The club originally played under the name Waterschei’s Sport Vereeniging THOR, where “THOR” was an acronym meaning “Tot Herstel Onzer Rechten” (“to restore our rights”), reflecting its working-class origins. It joined the Belgian Football Association in 1925 and was assigned matricule number 553, becoming one of the traditional clubs of the Limburg mining region.

Sportingly, Waterschei had several important periods in Belgian football. The club reached the top division for the first time in the 1950s and returned as a strong First Division side again between 1978 and 1986. Its greatest successes came in the early 1980s, when it won the Belgian Cup twice (1980 and 1982) and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in the 1982–83 season, famously defeating Paris Saint-Germain along the way.

Despite these achievements, the club was also involved in controversy, including a major match-fixing scandal in the early 1980s that affected Belgian football at the highest level. After struggling financially and being relegated to the second division, Waterschei eventually merged with neighbouring KFC Winterslag in 1988. This merger created KR.C. Genk, effectively ending Waterschei as an independent club but preserving its legacy within modern Belgian football.