Racing FC Union Luxembourg - Stade Achille Hamerrel

Racing Union FC Luxembourg

Stade Achille Hamerrel

5 Rue Lavoisier

1920 Bonnevoie-Nord-Verlorenkost

Luxembourg

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Ground Number: 1478

Sunday 14th September 2025

Racing  FC Union Luxembourg - US Mondorf

National Division

RACING FC UNION LUXEMBOURG - A BRIEF HISTORY

Racing Fussball Club Union Luxembourg, also known as Racing-Union, was formed following a series of mergers in 2005. The name originates from Racing Club Luxembourg and Union Sportive Luxembourg, two successful historic clubs of the many that merged to create it. Other clubs that were merged throughout history to form the current club include CA Spora Luxembourg, Sporting Club Luxembourg, CS Alliance 01, FC Aris Bonnevoie, US Hollerich Bonnevoie and Jeunesse Sportive Verlorenkost. Racing Club Luxembourg was founded in 1907 and became the first official Champion of Luxembourg by winning the title in 1909–10. RC Luxembourg also won the first Cup in 1922. Along with Sporting Club Luxembourg and Union Sportive Hollerich, the three clubs of the capital dominated Luxembourgish football in its early days.

The first big merger occurred in 1923 with the union of the two first Champions of Luxembourg: Racing & Sporting. The two clubs united under the new name of CA Spora Luxembourg. The name "Spora" came from the first three letters of SPOrting and the first two of RAcing. This club would not only become one of the most successful but also one of the largest sports clubs in the country. Before World War II, they had amassed seven league titles and three Luxembourg Cups. The 1961 Championship title would be the last for CA Spora for a while. Before completely disappearing from the peak of Luxembourgish football, they did manage to win the Luxembourg Cup in 1965 & 1966. Another four cups followed in 1986, 1989 & 1991, as well as the league title three times in a row between 1990 & 1992.

Spora as well as other local clubs, Aris & Union, then fell into financial difficulties. Having lived for years above their means, with expensive transfers and excessive wages, as well as neglect of youth development, Aris was forced to merge with CS Hollerich in 2001 to create CS Alliance 01. Union and Spora were also experiencing difficulties, with low attendance at their respective grounds and quickly accumulating debt. The merger that had created Alliance 01 had been a political botch-job that had left the new club without any fan base nor resources. In 2005 it was thus decided, upon great pressure from the Mayor and the councillors of the City of Luxembourg, to merge Alliance with Spora and Union. Racing FC Union was thus born out of troubled times, the politics behind the scenes having destroyed a lot of the trust and support the clubs had had amongst the general population.

This didn't solve problems on the field, and the new club was relegated from the top flight in 2014. Despite this, they still managed to win the Luxembourg Cup in 2018 on penalties, despite playing over 45 minutes with nine men following two sending offs. They have played ten games in European Football since the merger, losing nine of them. Their one positive result was a 0-0 draw in Romania against Viitorul Constanța. The most famous player to have turned out for the club, albeit in one of their many former guises, is Lumebourg International Robby Langers. Langers made his debut for the Luxembourg national team in a September 1980 World Cup qualification match against Yugoslavia and won 73 caps for Luxembourg over a period of eighteen years, and scored eight goals in the process. He played in 35 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. He played his final international game in May 1998, against Cameroon, in which he came on as a second-half substitute and was himself substituted a few minutes later in his honour. His most notable goal came on 31st October 1990 as Luxembourg managed to restrict Germany to a 3-2 win in a Euro 92 Qualifier.

MY VISIT

Luxembourg had long been on my hit list and I had stayed in Liege once with the aim of seeing a game there a couple of years ago. However, things didn't work out, and I went to see another couple of games instead. Rather than enter from Belgium or France, I went about my visit in an unconventional manner. Germany was a rich seam for Friday night games, and it would be a good opportunity to revisit one of my favourite cities in Frankfurt. I was pleased when I found that I could get a Flixbus between Frankfurt & Luxembourg and that sealed the deal. Initially, I thought I was going to see a double with a game scheduled in another part of the country at 8PM. However, that turned out to be a red herring and I'd have to be happy with just the one game. The other sealer was the obscenely cheap flight from Luxembourg to Stansted at just £13.

I must have got to bed around 11 after a decent night. I woke at 7 feeling good and refreshed. I watched YouTube for a bit before having a shower, getting dressed and getting everything packed up. It was a ten-minute walk to the Flixbus terminal and my coach turned up soon after. The coach was packed, but it was a fairly quiet journey, at least to start off with. We were scheduled to go to Frankfurt Airport, Mainz, Hahn Airport and Trier (which looked like a nice place) before arriving in Luxembourg four hours later. I was glad when the lady next to me got off at Mainz. She was pleasant enough, but was giving off heat like nobody's business. My single seat survived despite a mass changeover of passengers at Hahn airport, which was a very scenic area, looking out of the coach window. One final stop at Trier saw the coach almost empty in what looked like a pleasant town.

It was around 45 minutes to the Flix stop in Luxembourg and we were around 20 minutes late due to faffing around at earlier stations. I was just glad to get up and stretch my legs. It was a couple of minutes' walk and a couple of minutes wait for the bus, which was free like all public transport in Luxembourg. Unlike our government, who offer no incentive for people to leave the car at home, their government actually mean what they say when they talk of helping the environment. I got some cash out as I learned from another hopper that it's either cash or yet another xenophobic payment system only available to residents. I was glad to be able to check into my room early to store my stuff. The £92.21 was the most expensive part of the trip, but it was with my favoured hotel chain, Ibis. It was quite poky for what I paid, but they must be doing something right, as they were fully booked for the night on the least popular day of the week for hotel stays. I got to my room and had the bottle of Apfelwein as well as charging up my laptop, which had been well used researching my next game at Glasshoughton Welfare. I took the opportunity to have a shower to freshen up. I left my room at about 3.30 and headed to the ground. There was no signposting for the entrance, so I just walked through a random door, up the stairs and into the main stand. Food involved getting a prepaid card for a minimum of €10 and then getting it scrubbed off when you purchased something.

 

Racing were 14th, having drawn one and lost three of their games so far. In their last game, they had drawn 1-1 at F91 Diddeleng despite going down to ten men. US Mondorf-les-Bains were in 5th and had won three and lost two of their games. The game was fairly open and went as per the formbook and the visitors took the lead on 10 minutes with a close-range finish by Fournier. On 32 minutes, it was 2-0, a ball over the top was taken down well and left with a simple finish by Carmel Mabanza. The second half was a bit of a non event. Racing Union huffed and puffed but never really threatened. US Mondorf deserved the win and their fans were excellent, drumming throughout.

 

It had not been the greatest of games, not was Luxembourg the most exciting place with a lot of places closed on Sunday. As well as that, the seemingly modern trend of forcing pedestrians to walk in the road for the sake of giving a huge bit of space for building sites. There were, however, a couple of bars I fancied visiting but I wanted to go back to my room to get my jumper as it was a bit nippy. A charge of my phone would do no harm either. It also gave me the opportunity to check in for my flight tomorrow using my new passport. I stopped at a shop called Delhaise and got myself a couple of Belgian Fruit beers which went down a treat in the absence of cider. I got my blog almost complete, intending to include it tonight in the write-up. Rock Solid bar was 20 minutes away and involved bypassing a heavy Police cordon, out to tackle a protest of some kind. I was rewarded with a great selection. Cidre Mauret from Lille had some good examples. The Robuste was excellent. Then one of their draft cider and finally, a lovely fruit beer called Lupulous Fructus capped it all off. All of them were great and well-priced. The walk back to the hotel could have yielded food but the few open places had no menu in the window and no self-service. I went back to the room, in by 10 and having had a good day.

THE GROUND

The ACHILLE HAMMEREL STADIUM is a pleasant enough setup, though finding the entrance is a tad confusing as it was on the opposite side to the stand. There are three sides open, hard standing and one side of seating in blue. There's probably a 1,500 capacity here, with the 500 in the middle being covered by an attractive roof. There was no merch that I could see, sadly, but a reasonable range of food. Hot dogs were the main staple, and of the two, the Grillwurst was the pick of the two. Not a patch on the one I had at Biebrich yesterday, but still very good. A basic range of beer and soft drinks are available. The ground is only 15 minutes walk from Luxembourg City Centre but there is very little in the immediate area, so parking and walking to the ground is a doddle.