Belgium national football team

Belgium was one of the first mainland European countries to play association football.[7] Its practice in Belgium began on 26 October 1863, after an Irish student walked into the Josephites College of Melle with a leather ball.[8] Initially an elitist pastime,[9] during the following decades association football supplanted rugby as Belgium's most popular football sport.[10] On 1 September 1895, ten clubs for football, athletics, cricket and cycling founded the Belgian sports board Union Belge des Sociétés de Sports Athlétiques (UBSSA);[10][11] a year later UBSSA organised the first annual league in Belgian football.[10]

The first Belgium A-squad in 1901 featured four Englishmen.

On 11 October 1900, Beerschot AC honorary president Jorge Díaz announced that Antwerp would host a series of challenge matches between Europe's best football teams.[12] After some organisational problems, on 28 April 1901, Beerschot's pitch hosted its first tournament, in which a Belgian A-squad and a Dutch B-team contested the Coupe Vanden Abeele.[13][14] Belgium won,[15] and beat the Netherlands in all three follow-up matches;[16] FIFA does not recognise these results because Belgium fielded some English players.[16] On 1 May 1904, the Belgians played their first official match, against France at the Stade du Vivier d'Oie in Uccle; their draw left the Évence Coppée Trophy unclaimed.[17] Twenty days later, the football boards of both countries were among the seven FIFA founders.[18][19] At that time, the Belgian squad was chosen by a committee drawn from the country's six or seven major clubs.[20] In 1906, the national team players received the nickname Red Devils because of their red jerseys,[21] and four years later, Scottish ex-footballer William Maxwell replaced the UBSSA committee as their manager.[22] From 1912, UBSSA governed football only and was renamed UBSFA.[lower-alpha 4][1][10] During the Great War, the national team only played unrecognised friendlies, with matches in and against France.[23][24]

At the 1920 Summer Olympics, in their first official Olympic appearance, the Red Devils won the gold medal on home soil after a controversial final in which their Czechoslovak opponents left the pitch.[25] In the three 1920s Summer Olympics, they achieved fair results (four wins in seven matches), and played their first intercontinental match, against Argentina.[23] However, over the following decade, Belgium lost all of their matches at the first three FIFA World Cup final tournaments.[23] According to historian Richard Henshaw, "[t]he growth of [football] in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and South America left Belgium far behind".[26] Although World War II hindered international football events in the 1940s, the Belgian team remained active with unofficial matches against squads of other allied nations.[27]

In the 1920 Olympic football final at the Olympisch Stadion in Antwerp, Robert Coppée scored for Belgium with a penalty kick.

Belgium qualified for only one of eight major tournaments during the 1950s and the 1960s: the 1954 World Cup. The day before the tournament began, the RBFA was among the three UEFA founders.[28] Dutch journalists considered the draw of the 1954 Belgian team in their opener against England to be the most surprising result of that match day, even more than Switzerland's victory over the Italian "football stars".[29] However, Belgium were eliminated after a loss to Italy in the second (and last) group match.[30] Two bright spots in these decades were wins against World Cup holders: West Germany in 1954, and Brazil in 1963.[23] Between these, Belgium defeated Hungary's Golden Team in 1956.[23] The combination of failure in competitive matches, and success in exhibition matches, gave the Belgians the mock title of "world champion of the friendlies".[31][32]

The team's performance improved during the early 1970s, under manager Raymond Goethals. Fully dressed in white, as the White Devils,[33] Belgium had their first victories at World and European Championships at the 1970 World Cup and Euro 1972.[34][35] En route to that Euro appearance, their first, they eliminated reigning European champions Italy by winning the two-legged quarter-final on aggregate. At the end stage, they finished third by winning the consolation match against Hungary.[35] In 1973, the denial of a match-winning goal in their last 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification match for UEFA Group 3 cost Belgium their appearance at the finals,[36] causing Belgium to become the only nation ever to miss a World Cup final round despite not allowing a goal during the qualifiers.[37] The next two attempts to reach a major finals were also fruitless.[38][39]

Beginning with a second-place finish at Euro 1980,[40] the 1980s and the early 1990s are generally considered as Belgium's first golden age.[41] Coached by Guy Thys, they achieved their spot in the 1980 final with an unbeaten record in the group phase; in the final, they narrowly lost the title to West Germany with the score 1–2.[40] Starting with the 1982 World Cup, and ending with the 2002 World Cup, the national team qualified for six consecutive World Cup end stages and mostly progressed to the second round.[42] During this period, managers Guy Thys, Paul Van Himst and Robert Waseige each guided a Belgian selection past the first round.[43][44][45] In addition to receiving individual FIFA recognitions,[46][47] the team reached the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup.[48] After reaching the Euro 1980 final, they were unsuccessful at subsequent European Championships, with early exits from their appearances in 1984 and in 2000.[49][50] During the late 1990s, they played three friendly tournaments in Morocco, Cyprus and Japan,[51][52] sharing the 1999 Kirin Cup with Peru in the latter.[53] The greatest talents of the Belgian team during this golden age were retired from international football by 2000.[54] At the eve of the World Cup in 2002, Belgium defeated reigning world and European champions France.[23] During that World Cup, Belgium defeated Russia and tied with co-hosts Japan and Tunisia to reach the round of 16.[45]

Belgium (in red) playing Algeria at the Mineirão at the 2014 World Cup

After the 2002 World Cup, the team weakened with the loss of more veterans and coach Waseige.[55][56] They missed out five successive major finals from UEFA Euro 2004 until UEFA Euro 2012, and went through an equal number of head coaches.[57] A 2005 win over reigning European champions Greece meant nothing but a small comfort.[23] In between, a promising new generation was maturing at the 2007 European U-21 Championship; Belgium's squad qualified for the following year's Summer Olympics in Beijing,[58] where the Young Red Devils squad finished fourth.[59] Seventeen of them appeared in the senior national team,[54] albeit without making an immediate impact. Belgium finished in second (and last) place at the Kirin Cup in May 2009,[60] and lost against the 125th FIFA-ranked Armenian team in September 2009.[6] After Georges Leekens' second stint as national manager,[61][62] his assistant Marc Wilmots became the caretaker in May 2012.[63]

After two matches as interim coach, Wilmots agreed to replace Leekens as manager.[64] Following his appointment, the team's results improved,[65] such that some foreign media regarded it as another Belgian golden generation.[66][67][68] The young Belgian squad qualified as unbeaten group winners for the 2014 World Cup finals,[69] and earned Belgium's second-ever place in a World Cup quarter-finals with a four-match winning streak.[70] Belgium qualified for UEFA Euro 2016 with a match to spare in October 2015,[71] and took the top spot in the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015,[72] to stay first for five months.[6][73] In the following year, Belgium could not confirm their role as outsider at the European Championship with a quarter-final elimination by the 26th FIFA-ranked Welsh team.[6][74] This prompted the RBFA to dismiss Wilmots.[75] In the 2018 World Cup qualifying allocation, they were seeded first in their group,[76][77] and made the final tournament under Spanish manager Roberto Martínez, becoming the first European team besides hosts Russia to do so.[78] Belgium was eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions France, but won the third place play-off against England.[79] On 16 November 2019, for the first time in its history the team topped the World Football Elo Ratings, after a 1–4 away win over Russia during the Euro 2020 qualifiers.[80]

Traditional red jersey worn by the team which placed third at the 2018 World Cup, and the stylised lion emblem (1948–80)

In home matches, the team's outfield players traditionally wear the colours of the Belgian flag: black, yellow and red.[81][82][83] Red dominates the strip and is often the sole jersey colour.[82][83] The away colours are usually white, black or both;[84] in 2014, the squad introduced a third, yellow kit.[85] Their shirts are often trimmed with tricolores at the margins.[83][86] Since 1981, the RBFA emblem has been the national team's badge;[83][87] the previous badge was a yellow lion on a black shield,[82][83] similar to the escutcheon of the national coat of arms.[88] On 8 November 2019, the Royal Belgian Football Association revealed a new logo, which preserved the main elements of the previous one: the royal crown, the wreath and the Belgian tricolor.[89]

For their first unofficial match in 1901, the Belgian team wore white jerseys with tricoloured bands on the upper arms.[13] Around their third unofficial match in 1902, the choice was made for a "shirt with national colours ... [that would indicate,] with a stripe, the number of times every player has participated in an encounter".[15] Since 1904, Belgium's classic all-red jersey design has been altered twice. In 1904–05, the squad briefly wore satin shirts with three horizontal bands in red, yellow and black; according to sports journalist Victor Boin, the shirts set "the ugliness record".[20] During the 1970s, manager Raymond Goethals chose an all-white combination to improve the team's visibility during evening matches.[33][90]

Six clothing manufacturers have supplied the official team strip. Adidas is the producer since 2014,[91] and closed a sponsorship deal with the RBFA until 2026;[92] it was also the supplier from 1974 to 1980, and from 1982 to 1991.[93] Former kit manufacturers are Umbro (early 1970s),[90][93] Admiral (1981–1982),[lower-alpha 5][93] Diadora (1992–1999),[93] Nike (1999–2010) and Burrda (2010–2014).[lower-alpha 6][93][95]

The national stadium at the Heysel Plateau in 1935 (left) and in 2013

Numerous former and current venues in 11 urban areas have hosted Belgium's home matches.[23] Most of these matches have been played in Brussels at the Heysel Plateau, on the site of the present-day King Baudouin Stadium—a multipurpose facility with a seating capacity of 50,122.[96] Its field also hosts the team's final trainings before domestic matches. Since 2007, most physical preparation takes place at the National Football Centre in Tubize,[97] or at Anderlecht's training ground in the Neerpede quarter.[98][99] Apart from Belgian home friendlies, at the international level Belgium's national stadium has also hosted six European Championship matches.[100][101]

In 1930, for the country's centennial, the venue was inaugurated as the Jubilee Stadium with an unofficial match between Belgium and the Netherlands.[102] At that time, the stadium had a capacity of 75,000.[103] In 1946, it was renamed Heysel Stadium after its city quarter. This new name became associated with the tragedy preceding the 1985 European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool; 39 spectators died after riots in the then antiquated building.[104][105] Three years after the disaster, plans were unveiled for a renovation;[106] in 1995, after two years of work, the modernised stadium was named after the late King Baudouin.[107] In May 2013, the Brussels-Capital Region announced that the King Baudouin Stadium would be replaced by Eurostadium, elsewhere on the Heysel Plateau;[108] in 2018, however, the plans for the new stadium were cancelled definitively.[109]

Fans of the Belgian national team display the country's tricolour national flag, usually with an emphasis on the red element. In 2012, local supporter clubs merged into one large Belgian federation named "1895" after the foundation year of the RBFA. One year later, 1895 had 24,000 members.[139] The nationwide interest in the football squad has also been reflected by the occasional presence of Belgian monarchs at their matches since 1914.[140][141][142] One of the greatest moments for the Belgian team and their 12th man was in mid-1986 when the Belgian delegation at the Mexico World Cup received a warm "welcome home". When the World Cup semi-finalists appeared on the balcony of Brussels Town Hall, the adjoining Grand Place square was filled with an ecstatic crowd that cheered as though their squad had won a major tournament.[143]

Crowd of Belgian fans in Kaliningrad Stadium at the 2018 World Cup

The team's deterioration after the 2002 World Cup lead to their absence from the end stages of the next five major tournaments, and strained their popularity. Between 2004 and 2010, local journalists called the Belgian footballing nation "mortally ill".[144][145] Of the fans that kept supporting their squad in bad times, Ludo Rollenberg was one of the most loyal. He attended the team's matches worldwide since 1990, missing only the 1999 Japanese Kirin Cup and two other matches by 2006,[146] and was the only supporter to attend their matches in Armenia in 2009.[147]

Just before the kick-off of a 2014 World Cup home qualifier, Belgium's footballers saw a first tifo banner, sized 10.5 by 11.5 metres (34 by 38 ft) depicting a devil in the national colours.[148] The presence of many Belgian players in top leagues abroad, such as the Premier League,[149] and promising results under Marc Wilmots, increased fans' enthusiasm and belief in a successful World Cup campaign.[119][150] Because of this popularity peak, two Belgian monuments were decorated in national colours for the 2014 FIFA World Cup event; the Manneken Pis statue received a child-sized version of the new Belgian uniform,[151] and facets of the Atomium's upper sphere were covered in black, yellow and red vinyl.[152]

Illustration of a Netherlands–Belgium cup match at Rotterdam's Schuttersveld pitch in 1905

Belgium's main football rivals are its neighbours the Netherlands and France, with which it shares close cultural and political relations.[153][154] The matchup between the Belgian and Dutch team is known as the Low Countries derby, as of May 2018 they have played each other in 126 official matches.[102][155] Belgium won the first four—unofficial—matches against the Netherlands,[15] but lost their first FIFA-recognised contest.[23] The two national teams played each other biannually between 1905 and 1964, except during the World Wars.[23] They have met 18 times in major tournament campaigns, and have played at least 35 friendly cup matches: in Belgium for the Coupe Vanden Abeele, and in the Netherlands for the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad-Beker.[14][133] The overall balance favours the Netherlands, with 55 wins against 41 Belgian victories.[155] The Low Countries' squads co-operated in fundraising initiatives between 1925 and 1941; they played five unofficial matches for charity, FIFA and the Belgian Olympic Committee.[102][124][156]

The clash between the Belgian and French sides is nicknamed le Match Sympathique in French ("the Friendly Match");[157] they have contested 74 official matches as of September 2020.[155] The first match between Belgium and France, the Évence Coppée Trophy played in 1904, was the first official match for both teams and the first official football match between independent countries on the European continent.[158] Until 1967, the sides met almost annually.[23] As of September 2020, Belgium have the better record, with 30 wins to France's 25,[155] and France has played most often against Belgium in international football.[155]

Roberto Martínez, Belgium's current head coach (since 2016)

Since 1904, the RBFA, 24 permanent managers and two caretaker managers have officially been in charge of the national team;[lower-alpha 7][22][57] this includes one national footballer selector.[22] As of June 2016, a crew of over 20 RBFA employees guides the player group,[161] including their Spanish manager Roberto Martínez, and goalkeeping coaches Erwin Lemmens and Iñaki Bergara.[162][163] Under Marc Wilmots, Belgium reached the top FIFA ranking spot in 2015, which earned him the title of Best Coach of the Year at the 2015 Globe Soccer Awards.[164] Under Guy Thys, the squad achieved record results at World and European championships; World Soccer magazine accordingly proclaimed him Manager of the Year in 1986.[165]

Rather than developing innovative team formations or styles of play, Belgium's managers applied conventional tactics. At the three 1930s World Cups, the Red Devils were aligned in a contemporary 2–3–5 "pyramid".[166][167][168] In 1954, Doug Livingstone's squad played in a 3–2–5 "WM" arrangement during World Cup matches.[30] Throughout most of their tournament matches in the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s, the team played in a 4–4–2 formation.[34][43][44] Since Raymond Goethals' stint in the 1970s, a key strength of the Belgian squad has been their systematic use of the offside trap,[169] a defensive tactic that was already intensively applied in the 1960s by Anderlecht coach Pierre Sinibaldi.[170] According to football journalist Wim De Bock, "master tactician" Goethals represented the "conservative, defensive football of the Belgian national team"; he added that in the 1970s, the contrast between the Belgian playing style and the Total Football of their Dutch rivals "could not be bigger".[171]

In an attempt to win a match at the 1998 World Cup, Georges Leekens chose a 4–3–3 arrangement for Belgium's second and third group matches.[172] Robert Waseige, Belgium coach around 2000, said that "above all, [his] 4–4–2 system [was] holy", in the sense that he left good attackers on the bench to keep his favourite formation.[173] Wilmots opted for the 4–3–3 line-up again,[174] with the intention of showing dominant football against any country.[175] Under Wilmots, Belgium managed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup where the team lost against Argentina in the quarter finals. After another qualification for the 2016 European Championships under Wilmots and a subsequent elimination in the quarter finals against Wales, Wilmots was replaced by Robert Martinez. Martinez led Belgium during a successful 2018 World Cup, reaching 3rd place overall after being eliminated in the semi finals by France.

As of 8 September 2020, the complete official match record of the Belgian national team comprises 784 matches: 339 wins, 165 draws and 280 losses.[lower-alpha 2][23] During these matches, the team scored 1,396 times and conceded 1,256 goals. Belgium's highest winning margin is nine goals, which has been achieved on four occasions: against Zambia in 1994 (9–0), against San Marino in 2001 (10–1) and 2019 (9–0), and against Gibraltar in 2017 (9–0).[23] Their longest winning streak is 12 wins, and their unbeaten record is 23 consecutive official matches.[lower-alpha 11][23]

The entire match record can be examined on the following articles:

• Results in chronological order lists all individual matches.
• Record per opponent shows the head-to-head record against other footballing nations.
• Statistics per manager compiles an overview per managerial period.

Upcoming fixtures are listed on the 2020s results page.

• Belgium national football team results – unofficial matches
• Belgian Congo national football team (1948–60)
• Belgium national football B team
• Belgium national youth football team (U-15 – U-21 squads)
• Belgian First Division A
• Sport in Belgium

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belgium national association football team.

• RBFA official website (in Dutch, English, and French)
• FIFA team profile
• UEFA team profile
• ELO team records
• Belgian national team news website (in French)
• Official supporters' federation 1895 (in Dutch and French)