The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of

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 ...

in Belgium. It was a founding member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the

King Baudouin Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in v ...

. Since October 2021, the headquarters of the RBFA are located in Tubize, next to its technical centre. Its chairman is

Robert Huygens The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

Teams and competitions

The Association organizes the Belgium men's,

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, youth national teams, and national eSports team for FIFA. It also runs the

Belgian football league system The Belgian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Belgium. Men's system The league system underwent restructuring which was approved by the Royal Belgian Football Association. One important step was the ...

, which includes the following competitions: * First division A * First division B * National Division 1 * Division 2 *

Division 3 In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football * Belgian Th ...

* Provincial leagues *

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

Supercup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

* Futsal competitions *

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

competitions: **

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

** First Division ** Second Division **

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

** From the 2012–13 through 2014–15 seasons, the federation partnered with its Dutch counterpart to operate a joint national league, the

BeNe League The BeNe League was the highest women's football league in Belgium and the Netherlands. To increase competitiveness in their national leagues, the BeNe League was a joint cooperation between the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Royal Du ...

. The two federations dissolved the joint league and reestablished their own top-level women's leagues.

Chairmen

*1895–1924: Baron Edouard de Laveleye *1924–1929: Count Joseph d'Oultremont *1929–1937: Rodolphe William Seeldrayers *1937–1943: Oscar van Kesbeeck *1945–1951:

Francis Dessain Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome * Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places * Rural ...

*1951–1967:

Georges Hermesse Georges may refer to: Places *Georges River, New South Wales, Australia *Georges Quay (Dublin) * Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania Other uses *Georges (name) * ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas * "Georges" (song), a 197 ...

*1967–1987:

Louis Wouters Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS Louis, HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also

Derived or associated te ...

*1987–2001: Baron

Michel D'Hooghe Michel, Baron D'Hooghe (born 8 December 1945 in Bruges) is a Belgian former member of the FIFA Council"Russian World Cup lobbyist gave painting to FIFA chief", ''Sunday Times'', 14 August 2011, page 7 and the former Chairman of the FIFA medical c ...

*2001–2005: Jan Peeters *2006–2017:

François De Keersmaecker François De Keersmaecker (born 12 April 1958 in Willebroek) was the president of the Royal Belgian Football Association (URBSFA/KBVB) from 24 June 2006 until 24 June 2017. In that function he has been actively committed in the candidacy of Belg ...

*2017–2019:

Gérard Linard Gérard (French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitu ...

*2019–2021:

Mehdi Bayat Mehdigholi Bayat (born 6 January 1979 in Tehran) is a French-Iranian sports administrator who serves as president of the Royal Belgian Football Association and managing director of Royal Charleroi Sporting Club. Career Born in Tehran and rai ...

*2021–present: Gilian Maertens

Association Awards

Each year, the executive committee of the Belgian FA honours deserving people with awards. These include (highest award first): * Grand Order of the Baron de Laveleye, as of 2015 only given to five people (including former chairmen) * Gold Medal, for honorary members serving 10 years * Honorary Member, to certain international referees and chairmen (typically 40 years of service) * Emeritus Member, to certain referees and chairmen (typically 30 years of service) * Association Medal of Honour, to certain referees and chairmen (typically 20 years of service) * Medal of Recognition, mostly given to national football team players with 35 caps, but also to players with 20 caps whose career stopped after injury and people who have performed an exceptional service to the RBFA.

Received awards

* In 1992, the

awarded the Belgian Football Association the FIFA Fair Play Award.

Charity

In the summer of 1986, when the national men's A-selection reached the semifinals of the World Cup in Mexico, the football team started the project Casa Hogar under impulse of RBFA delegation responsible Dr.

. This is a home for street children in the industrial

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

city Toluca, to which the football players donated part of their tournament bonuses. During 25 years, the RBFA stayed committed with this project and helped 500 children to meals and education.

Current sponsorships

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

* Carrefour * Coca-Cola * ING Group * PricewaterhouseCoopers * BMW * Proximus *

ERGO Ergo may refer to: * A Latin word meaning "therefore" as in Cogito ergo sum *''Ergo (journal)'', an academic journal * A Greek word έργο meaning "work", used as a prefix ergo-, for example, in ergonomics. * Ergometer (rowing), an indoor rowi ...

* Jupiler *

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

* Sporza * GLS * Luminus

References

External links

*
Belgium
at FIFA site

at UEFA site {{Authority control 1895 establishments in Belgium Association Association Organisations based in Belgium with royal patronage Sports organizations established in 1895

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 ...

Belgium