Koninklijke Voetbalclub Oostende, also called KV Oostende (Dutch pronunciation: [kaːˌveː oːstˈɛndə]) or KVO, is a Belgian professional football club based in Ostend, West Flanders. The team was founded in 1904 as VG Oostende and has the matricule No. 31. From 2023–24, KV Oostende play in Challenger Pro League, following the relegation from Belgian Pro League. In 1911, another club was created, AS Oostende, which would soon become the best club of the city, playing regularly in the second division in the 1930s. In the mid 1970s, AS reached the first division while VG was playing at the second level. The two clubs merged in 1981 to become KV Oostende. The new club played in the third division for eleven years, before finally being promoted. In its first season on the second level, Oostende were immediately promoted again, to the first division, where it would achieve its best result in the club history: a seventh place, in 1993–94. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)