They are nicknamed Sang et Or, meaning blood and gold. According to this, we can guess that their colours will be blood and gold, i.e. red and yellow. It can be found both on the jerseys and in the emblem. At home they play at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, a vintage stadium that first opened its doors in 1933. After its major renovation in the 2014/15 season, it currently has a capacity of 38,058 seats. This is 7,000 more than the city's population.
The club's main rivals are Lille, their northern neighbour, with whom they play a local derby known as the Derby du Nord (northern derby). Both are the region's most successful clubs. The naming of the derby may seem a bit strange as there is only a Lille club in the Nord department. On the other hand, both are in the north of France. The clubs first met in 1937.
The club was founded in 1906 in the town of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. It was founded by students who were then playing football at Place Verte (now Place de la République). The full name, Racing Club de Lens, is a reference to the popular football clubs of the time, Racing Club de Roubaix and Racing Club de France.
The club originally played in green and black jerseys. The green represented "Verte", which is green in French, and the black represented the ubiquitous coal mines in the area. In fact, the town of Lens still has mining, steel and coke industries. After a pause during World War I, they briefly played in sky blue jerseys, and the era of the current colours came with 1924. The blood of the miners was supposedly the blood, and the gold was the coal, which had value at the time. It is also said that the colours refer to the Spanish flag for their dominance in football at the time.
While the club played in the 2nd division for a long time and still alternates between the top two divisions, in 1998 they managed to capture their first and last league title in the top competition, now Ligue 1. This period also saw their best league performances as they won the 1994 and 1999 French Football Cup. On European soil, they scored more points in 2005 and 2007, when they celebrated success in the Intertoto Cup.
| Date | Home | Away | Halftime | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.05.2024 | RC Lens | Montpellier HSC | 2 : 0 | 2 : 2 |
| 18.05.2024 | RC Lens | Montpellier HSC | : | : |
| 12.05.2024 | Stade Rennais FC | RC Lens | 0 : 0 | 1 : 1 |
| 11.05.2024 | Stade Rennais FC | RC Lens | : | : |
| 03.05.2024 | RC Lens | FC Lorient | 0 : 0 | 2 : 0 |
| 28.04.2024 | Olympique de Marseille | RC Lens | 1 : 0 | 2 : 1 |
| 21.04.2024 | RC Lens | Clermont Foot | : | : |
| 20.04.2024 | RC Lens | Clermont Foot | 1 : 0 | 1 : 0 |
| 14.04.2024 | FC Metz | RC Lens | : | : |
| 12.04.2024 | FC Metz | RC Lens | 2 : 1 | 2 : 1 |