Steven Martens (born 25 May 1964 in Lier) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

sports executive and the ex-

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Royal Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, th ...

. He obtained a master's degree in classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

and became a top trainer in

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

at the

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

trainers' school

Bloso Sport Vlaanderen is the Flemish sports agency. Within Belgium, it is the Flemish counterpart of French-speaking ADEPS. Both agencies were founded in 1969 to succeed the state-founded national INEPS/NILOS. Until 2016 Sport Vlaanderen was called Blo ...

. In his youth years he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and tennis. He is a brother of the (socialist)

sp.a Vooruit (Dutch for Forward, ) is a Flemish social democratic political party in Belgium. The party was known as the Flemish Socialist Party (1978–2001: ''Socialistische Partij'', SP; 2001–2021: ''Socialistische Partij Anders'', SP.A) until 2 ...

-politician Bart Martens.

Tennis and football

He became a tennis coach in 1987 within the Belgian Tennis Federation with players as

Sabine Appelmans Sabine Appelmans (born 22 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Belgium. She was Belgium's Fed Cup captain from 2007 until 2011. Career Appelmans started playing at the neighbour's court at the age of seven. Her first traine ...

Laurence Courtois Laurence Courtois (born 18 January 1976) is a former professional female tennis player from Belgium. Courtois, who was born in Kortrijk, won four doubles titles on the WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organ ...

Kim Clijsters Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (; born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, ...

Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in te ...

Kirsten Flipkens Kirsten "Flipper" Flipkens (; born 10 January 1986) is a Belgian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Flipkens has won one singles title on the WTA Tour, winning the 2012 T ...

Xavier Malisse Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a former Belgian professional tennis player. Born in the north-western Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed ''X-Man'', he is one of only two Belgian men (the other being David Goffin) to have been ranked i ...

Olivier Rochus Olivier Rochus (; born 18 January 1981) is a retired Belgian tennis player. He is the younger brother of Christophe Rochus, also a former top-40 tennis player. Rochus won two singles titles in his career and in 2004 French Open – Men's double ...

Kristof Vliegen Kristof Vliegen (born 22 June 1982) is a Belgian former tennis player. He plays right-handed and he turned professional in 2001. He was a semi-finalist in Chennai in 2006 and in May of the same year, he reached the final of the ATP tourname ...

and

Steve Darcis Steve Darcis (, born 13 March 1984) is a Belgium, Belgian retired professional tennis player. In his career, he won two ATP titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 38 on 22 May 2017. Personal life Steve Darcis was born in ...

. In 1997 he was awarded the ITF Coach fair play award. Afterwards he became technical coordinator of the (Flemish) VTV training centre from 1998 to 2005, to keep the function of technical director until 2006. Additionally, Steven Martens was captain from Belgian national tennis teams in the

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

team (1993-1998) and the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

team. In 2004 he was coach from the national team at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, the tournament at which Justine Henin would win Olympic tennis gold for Belgium. From 2007 on he was active as player director with the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), the tennis federation of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. There, he was busy with scouting and education from younger players and coaches and he took care of the support and guidance for top players. Martens was also a regular co-commentator during tennis matches at the Belgian public broadcast VRT. On 1 May 2011, he was assigned as new

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

(CEO) of the

, as successor of Jean-Marie Philips. In an interview one year after his entry as Secretary-General he explained his long-term vision to increase the Belgian interest for playing football (also the women's interest) and to improve the Belgian FA's image and Belgian stadiums. Martens resigned on 9 February 2015 after accusations of bad management and financial losses.

External links

Website Royal Belgian Football Association

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martens, Steven 1965 births Living people Belgian sports executives and administrators KU Leuven alumni Belgian tennis coaches Belgian male tennis players People from Lier, Belgium Sportspeople from Antwerp Province 21st-century Belgian people