Roger Lambrecht (19 August 1931 – 15 February 2022) was a Belgian businessman and footballer. From 1994 to 2019, he was President of

Sporting Lokeren Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen (; often simply called Sporting Lokeren or Lokeren) was a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Lokeren, in the province of East Flanders. The club was founded in 1923 but ce ...

Biography

Lambrecht made his football debut during World War II with Standaard FC Lokeren. He also played junior football for

K.F.C. Vigor Wuitens Hamme K.F.C. V.W. Hamme is a football in Belgium, Belgian association football club from Hamme, Belgium, Hamme in East Flanders. It is currently playing in the Belgian Third Division. History The club first reached the second division in 1997 (as c ...

and . Upon his retirement, he began working in a

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

factory. In the 1960s, Lambrecht founded his own tire manufacturing plant in

Berchem Berchem () is a southern Districts of Antwerp, district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Berchem is located along the old ''Grote Steenweg'' (Dutch language, Dutch for 'Big Paved Road') that has connected ...

, located just outside of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. In 1993, he became managing director of the newly founded airline

VLM Airlines VLM Airlines was a Belgian airline offering scheduled, charter and ACMI services. It was headquartered at Antwerp International Airport in Deurne. It ceased operations on 31 August 2018. It is not to be confused with its Belgian sister airline ...

. One year later, he took over Sporting Lokeren, which had just been relegated to the

Belgian Second Division The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...

. He brought the club back to

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

in 1996. He then devoted himself to the club full-time and left VLM Airlines in 1997. Lambrecht was the sole decision-maker for Sporting Lokeren until 2010. He decided to delegate some functions of the club to technical director Willy Verhoost and sporting manager Jean-Marie Philips, the latter of whom was replaced the following year by Marc Vanmaele. The club subsequently won the Belgian Cup in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. On 7 June 2019, Lambrecht stepped down as President of Sporting Lokeren and left the club's leadership with former player agent Louis de Vries. He died on 15 February 2022, at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambrecht, Roger 1931 births 2022 deaths People from Lokeren Belgian businesspeople K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen Belgian football managers Belgian chief executives K.F.C. Vigor Wuitens Hamme players Belgian men's footballers