Football Club Verbroedering Dender Eendracht Hekelgem, also simply known as Dender or Verbroedering Dender, is a Belgian association football club based in Denderleeuw. The club is named after former clubs KFC Denderleeuw Eendracht Hekelgem and Verbroedering Denderhoutem, which merged at the end of the 2004–05 season, and after the river Dender, which crosses the town of Denderleeuw. The home stadium of the club is Florent Beeckmanstadion, located in Denderleeuw. Their best league ranking was the 15th place in the first division (in 2007–08 and 2008–09). The club colours are blue and black.
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.
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.
This page also has a version in other languages : Дендер (russian)