Developing football in Belgium
Article summary
Sustained success at the top of both the men’s and women’s games has its roots in a clear long-term strategy delivered by the Royal Belgian Football Association.
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Overview
The Royal Belgian Football Association's (RBFA) development of the national game had delivered significant recent breakthroughs, including the men's national team – nicknamed the Red Devils – reaching the top of the world rankings and the 2018 FIFA World Cup semi-finals, and the women's team becoming a regular at UEFA Women’s EURO.
Building on that momentum, in 2025 the RBFA launched a vision and action plan for 2030 – Football First. It aims to strengthen Belgian football in sporting terms while also maximising its societal impact, setting clear objectives around five strategic areas all supported by two key enablers; financial stability and good governance, and innovation and digital transformation.
It follows the 2024 launch of a new women’s football strategy – Believe and Achieve. Its predecessor – The World At Our Feet – generated a 38% increase in the number of registered female footballers and a 23% increase in the number of women's teams. Running to 2028, Believe and Achieve’s objectives include further 10% annual increases in the number of female footballers, a place among the top eight European national teams and the top 12 in the world, and doubling the number of supporters at international matches.
The impressive performances of Belgium's national teams owe much to the work of the RBFA's technical department. By investing in the development of football at all levels – grassroots, amateur and professional – the association has significantly increased the pool of available players, and capitalised on new technology to improve the performance of the various national teams.
During the pandemic, the association provided more than €8 million to help clubs cope with the loss of ticket sales and broadcasting revenue; this included temporarily suspending their monthly payments to the RBFA. Efforts were also made to facilitate grassroots football matches and training sessions, while respecting emergency health measures. The RBFA also launched several online initiatives to stay in touch with fans of the national teams.
UEFA support
UEFA's HatTrick programme, which channels EURO funds into football development across Europe, has helped the RBFA achieve its goal of increasing participation in youth, men's and women's football by supporting the construction of a national training centre that hosts all national teams and technical staff. HatTrick also financed the addition of a centre of excellence – including a medical centre, auditorium and hotel – to the complex, which is based at Tubize, near Brussels.
The RBFA has also drawn on HatTrick funding to launch social responsibility projects, creating more opportunities for people with disabilities to play football, including at grassroots and amateur level. The Nobody Offside project, for example, run jointly with private and public partners, is helping to widen the range of Belgian national teams for players with different disabilities.
UEFA Foundation for Children in Belgium
Set up in 2015, the UEFA Foundation uses football as a vehicle to help improve children's lives by supporting hundreds of campaigns and projects across Europe and around the world.
As part of UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, the UEFA Foundation for Children and the adidas Foundation partnered with national associations and local organisations to advance gender equity across all 16 competing nations. In Belgium, the selected project was BX Brussels, a community‑driven club in one of the city's most diverse neighbourhoods. Through BX Femina, the club offers a wide range of training and development opportunities to its 120 female players.
Created by former international striker Mbo Mpenza and supported by €85,000 of UEFA Foundation funding, the Mbo Mpenza Challenge’s mission is to use football as a driver of inclusion and respect in Belgian schools. After seven years of youth tournaments and the rollout of free pedagogical resources across the French-speaking community, the project is integrating its method directly into citizenship and PE classes.
The Peace Field Project uses football as a vehicle to give young people from migrant, disabled and disadvantaged backgrounds the tools to communicate, resolve conflict and work together. Alongside providing online resources, it runs the annual Global Peace Games – a week of mixed-gender and mixed-ability sport and cultural events.
In 2025, the RBFA expanded the Belgian Red Courts project: a group of community football spaces that provide safe, welcoming environments for everyone, with a special focus on disadvantaged children.
Between 2018 and 2021, the foundation awarded €210,000 to Scoring for Health – an education project encouraging children aged 7–13 to eat and live more healthily that was supported by professional clubs and foundations in Belgium, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and Ukraine. As part of the project, stadiums and football academies organised launch events, often involving first-term players, for 20-week school programmes, each focused on eating habits, cooking, football and physical exercise. Over two-and-a-half years, some 3,200 boys and girls at 160 schools in eight cities received diplomas, after completing the course.
Timeline
Association history
National team history
President
Pascale Van Damme
Nationality: Belgian
Date of birth: 27 November 1968
Association president since: 2023
General secretary
Peter Willems
Nationality: Belgian
Date of birth: 24 June 1974
Association general secretary since: 2024