F.C. De Kampioenen

F.C. De Kampioenen follows a ragtag local football team whose matches are less important than the social life that surrounds them. Most scenes happen in the club canteen, where Pascale runs the place while juggling her relationship with Maurice and the eccentric regulars. The team is sponsored by Balthazar Boma, who owns a sausage factory, and trouble often comes from Fernand, an antiques dealer who uses tricks and schemes to stir things up. Episodes lean on playful misunderstandings, recurring gags and stock characters, keeping stories short, silly and centered on small-town relationships rather than dramatic sport action.

The show premiered on the Belgian-Flemish channel één in 1990 and ran until 2011, totaling 21 seasons and 273 half-hour episodes. It was created by Bruno Raes, Luc Beerten and Willy Vanduren, and a new film script was announced for a movie scheduled for release in December 2013.

Despite its longevity and popularity in Flanders, F.C. De Kampioenen did not rack up major international awards, and there are no widely noted Oscar or Emmy wins associated with the series. Its recognition was mostly regional, tied to audience affection rather than prize seasons.

F.C. De Kampioenen became a fixture of Flemish popular culture, remembered for its recurring setups and the way characters turned everyday squabbles into running jokes. The title and many character names are widely known across Belgium, and its long run helped shape what mainstream sitcom comedy looked like on Flemish TV for two decades.

Critics and viewers tended to treat the series as light escapism rather than prestige television, reflected in a modest user score of 7.2/10 from a small sample of votes. The show leans on stereotype and farce for humor, with themes of friendship, community loyalty and petty rivalry threaded through episodes, making it an easy, familiar watch for regular viewers.