Club BruggeClub Brugge KV traces its roots to Brugsche Football Club, founded in 1891 by a group of former students from Catholic schools, who adopted the Latin motto "mens sana in corpore sano" ("a healthy mind in a healthy body"). It is regarded as the oldest football club in Flanders. The club has carried its current Flemish name, Club Brugge KV, only since 1972 — before that, following a merger with rival Football Club Brugeois, it operated under the French name Football Club Brugeois. The "Koninklijke" (Royal) prefix was granted in 1920, after the club won its first Belgian championship.
The club's golden era began in 1975 under Austrian coach Ernst Happel, one of the most influential figures in European football history. Under his guidance, Bruges won three consecutive Belgian championships (1976, 1977, 1978) and, in 1977, the club's first-ever Belgian Cup, completing a domestic double. On the continental stage, the club reached two European finals, losing both to Liverpool: the 1976 UEFA Cup final (a 4–3 aggregate defeat) and the 1978 European Cup final, where Liverpool won 1–0 at Wembley. To this day, no other Belgian club has reached the final of Europe's top club competition.
Known as the "Blue-Blacks" (Blauw-Zwart), the team plays its home matches at the Jan Breydel Stadium, built in the mid-1970s as the Olympiastadion and shared with local rivals Cercle Brugge. The rivalry between the two Bruges clubs, known as the city derby, is among the fiercest in Belgian football.
Today, Club Brugge remains one of the two most decorated clubs in the country, with 19 league titles — second only to RSC Anderlecht. The club is a regular participant in the Champions League group stage and consistently combines competing at the highest European level with a financial model built on developing and selling young, promising talent, making it one of the best-run clubs in Belgium.
