The new year 2026 is now a few weeks old, and preparations for the new racing season are slowly getting underway. On Saturday, 24 January, the provincial meeting will take place. After this meeting, we will be able to provide you with more concrete information about the 2026 season.
As every winter, many stories and rumours have circulated once again. Some turned out to be based on facts, others were clearly less reliable. That is why we would like to give you an overview of the current situation.
During the KBDB elections, several candidates visited our club. They indicated that they support a joint release and combined competition between sector 2 and sector 3. Many fanciers cast their votes based on this and expressed their confidence in these candidates.
In the run‑up to the provincial meeting, PE Vlaams‑Brabant organised sectoral meetings to gauge the views of the clubs. For our club, the message was clear: we represented the voice of our members and answered positively to the question of releasing and competing sector 2 and sector 3 together, starting from the short‑distance races.
Within sector 2, there were only two differing opinions:
The vast majority of sector 2 therefore supports cooperation with sector 3. And that is no luxury. The provincial championships clearly show that fanciers from sectors 2 and 3 are structurally disadvantaged compared to sector 1, where larger numbers of pigeons allow better coefficients to be achieved. Cooperation is essential to put sectors 2 and 3 back on the map.
As early as September, the first rumours emerged that Antwerp might also join a joint release. Initially, this was dismissed as winter talk. However, in December the signals grew stronger, and even confirmations followed that this had been discussed and might go ahead regardless of the provincial meeting.
Remarkably, no Vlaams‑Brabant representative had previously brought forward this proposal — not during the elections and not at the sectoral meetings. Even stranger is that some clubs seem to be aware of these intentions, and that amendments have already been submitted for the provincial meeting of 24 January against the proposol. This indicates a leak, and it is clear that not all clubs receive the same information.
There are even whispers that this would be a national decision. That seems unlikely, as short‑distance and middle‑distance races fall under provincial authority. Winter remains a peculiar period in our sport…
Last Saturday, the champion celebration of PE Vlaams‑Brabant took place in the banquet hall De Waerboom in Groot‑Bijgaarden. With 190 registered fanciers, it was a very successful evening.
During his closing speech, national chairman Johan De Schouwer praised the new Vlaams‑Brabant board and the youth club. He stated that they are open to new initiatives, including a test release of sector 2 & 3 together with Antwerp. Where there is smoke, there is fire — and this confirmed part of the rumours.
Yet the question remains:
Where does this proposal come from? Provincial? National? And why is this not clearly communicated to all clubs and fanciers?
Sectoral meetings lose their value if not all information is shared. Transparency and participation were promised, but so far we have seen little of it. Hopefully, we will not fall back into old habits, and the promised openness and transparency will still be delivered.
These are proposals to be approved at the provincial meeting. Strangely, there is NO proposal to release sector 2 and sector 3 together on the short‑distance races. Once again, a sectoral meeting is being ignored. For your information: in the first draft calendars, a separate release was also foreseen for sector 2 and sector 3 on the middle‑distance races, which was later changed.
Saturday 24 January will be a crucial day. Then we will finally know the direction PE Vlaams‑Brabant intends to take and what the 2026 season will look like in concrete terms. We hope that decisions will be communicated in time, so that fanciers do not have to wait until the season starts to find out how the races will be organised.
We hope this has given you some insight into what is currently going on. As a reminder: the club will be open on Sunday 18 January from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Everyone is warmly welcome!
Naam schrijver: Buelens, Geert