Racing Club de Lens, commonly abbreviated to RC Lens, is a football club based in Lens. The club plays at home at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, with a capacity of 38,223 seats.
Founded in 1906 under the name Racing Club Lensois, the club took its current name in 1969. In 2023, the Lensois club has two major national titles to its name: the 1998 French championship and the Coupe de la Ligue in 1999. At European level, the club has reached the Champions League three times, during the 1998-1999, 2002-2003 and 2023-2024 seasons, reaching the semi-finals of the 2000 UEFA Cup before win the 2005 Intertoto Cup.
The club has played with professional status since 1934, despite a year as an amateur between 1969 and 1970 following poor results and financial difficulties due to the crisis in the coal and mining sector, the club's main financial player. at the time.
The club has a regional rivalry with LOSC Lille, another northern club. There are also tensions with the Valenciennes Football Club. Which leaves room for derbies expected by supporters of all northern clubs.
During the 2022-2023 season, the first team plays in Ligue 1, while the men's reserve team is in the French National 3 football championship. The women's team is in the French women's Championship. second division football.
At the end of the 19th century, football appeared in France. In the region, several clubs were created, such as in Arras (in 1901). On the Lens side, the students got into the habit of meeting on the Place Verte (currently Place de la République) to play on weekends and, eager to offer them a team in which they could play, Arthur Lotin (first president of the club) and Carlos Douterlungne created the Racing Club Lensois in 1906. The second is the owner of an estaminet which naturally became the first head office of the club.If the project was launched in 1906, the first statutes of the Racing Club Lensois were submitted to the sub-prefecture on October 18, 1907. This allowed the artesian team to take part in the Artois League from the 1907-1908 season.Already anchored in its environment, Racing adopts Green and Black as official colors, in reference to the Green Square and coal. The Lensois players settled on land lent by the Compagnie des Mines de Lens, located on route de Béthune, then had to move again in 1912. Headed to the Glissoire park in Avion.
The current Racing coat of arms has been used since 2014. It is a modernized version of the 1979 coat of arms. It uses the colors blood and gold and recalls two Artesian symbols: the miner's lamp and the coat of arms of the City of Lens, which had taken , in 1969, the Compagnie des Mines took over in the management of the club.
The current coat of arms does not include the words “Since 1906” but only “1906”, the date of creation of the Racing Club de Lens.
''Pour L'amour Du Maıllot'' : For the love of the jersey
''The club's existing colors were used.''
