Charleroi will start in November with the partial demolition of the Stade du Pays de Charleroi, which will result in a capacity reduction from 25,000 to 14,000 seats.
The city of Charleroi, owner of the stadium, has no other option as they failed to arrange a building permit when they expanded the stadium for the Euro 2000 tournament.
This had not been a problem until recently a national court demanded to act against illegal constructions. A failure to do so would result in large penalties which the city is not willing to bear.
The readjustment will involve tearing down the upper tiers of three out of four stands, which will be done in phases.
Sporting Charleroi currently leads the second division with a good chance on promotion. The reduced capacity will not affect the club much though, as even in their years in Belgium’s top league they only occasionally managed to attract more than 14,000 spectators.