Alain Courtois (born 12 June 1951) is a Belgian politician. Born in

Schaerbeek (French language, French and History of Dutch orthography, archaic Dutch, ) or (contemporary Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Re ...

, he is Secretary General of the Belgian Football Association (URBSFA). He has served as a replacement minister on several occasions. He was the federally appointed

Reformist Movement The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as pa ...

—

Citizens' Movement for Change Citizens' Movement for Change (french: Mouvement des Citoyens pour le Changement, MCC) is a Christian-democratic political party in the French Community of Belgium founded by Gérard Deprez in 1998. Deprez was the leader of the Francophone Christ ...

representative of the

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde The area within Belgium known as Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde encompasses the bilingual— French and Dutch—Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilvo ...

district from 26 June 2003 to 12 February 2004, replacing Daniel Ducarme, who became

Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region The Minister-President of the Brussels Capital-Region (french: Ministre-président de la région de Bruxelles-Capitale, nl, Minister-president van het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest) is the person leading the Government of the Brussels-Capital R ...

and minister of Arts, Letters and Audio-visual of the

French Community of Belgium In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Fédé ...

. From 19 February 2004 to 28 June 2004 he served as a replacement for

Jacques Simonet Jacques Simonet (21 December 1963 – 14 June 2007) was a Belgian politician and a former Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region. Life He is the son of Henri Simonet, former Socialist Party minister and for many years mayor of Anderl ...

, who replaced Ducarme in the

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

post following a scandal. Since 1 July 2004 he has served as a replacement for Martine Payfa, who was elected to the Belgian Federal Parliament from the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He was elected as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2007. Courtois is a supporter of football in Belgium, and is a frequent commentator on the RTL sports radio program "Vasyavoirdusport." He led the organizing committee of

2000 UEFA European Championship The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

, which was held jointly in Belgium and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In 2006, he was named to lead the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

bid for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

, known as Beltomundial. He also led Brussels' successful bid to host the '' Grand Départ'' of the

2019 Tour de France The 2019 Tour de France was the 106th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. The -long race consisted of 21 race stage, stages, starting in the Belgian capital of Brussels on 6 July, before movi ...

References

1951 births Members of the Belgian Federal Parliament Football people in Belgium Living people Reformist Movement politicians People from Schaerbeek 21st-century Belgian politicians {{Brussels-politician-stub