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Bayat elected in Belgium

Members

Mehdi Bayat will serve a two-year term as president of the Royal Belgian Football Association (KBVB/URBSFA) after his election as the association's twelfth president.

Royal Belgian Football Association president Mehdi Bayat
Royal Belgian Football Association president Mehdi Bayat ©Photo News

Mehdi Bayat has been elected as the new president of the Royal Belgian Football Association (KBVB/URBSFA).

The 40-year-old businessman succeeds Gérard Linard, after the latter reached the age limit for the office. Bayat is the twelfth president in the association’s history, and has been elected for a two-year term.

Bayat has been CEO of Belgian top-flight club R. Charleroi SC since 2010, after having worked there as commercial director since 2003, as well as serving as the youngest member of the Belgian national association’s board of directors.

The Belgian FA also announced that the new president will have a more ceremonial role, to represent the FA at official meetings, and to support the association’s management, who will work under new structures in accordance with the FA’s good governance programme aimed in particular at enhancing transparency.

“I am extremely happy with the faith that has been placed in me,” said Bayat. “Within the FA, I especially want to support the management, with whom I already have enjoyed good co-operation.”