The Football Association starts in a communiqué with a strict analysis of the past World Cup. The Red Devils were eliminated in the first round: “The Board of Directors and the management of the RBFA have taken the time in recent days to evaluate the situation after the World Cup. The disappointment still lingers. With the Golden Generation we had almost forgotten about losing, but unfortunately the Red Devils were not at the appointment in Qatar,” CEO Peter Bossaert writes in the statement of the football association.
It stormed between CEO Peter Bossaert and the Board of Directors of the Football Association, but the folds have been ironed out. — © Kristof Vadino
Shortly after the last group match against Croatia, Roberto Martinez announced that he would stop as national coach and technical director of the Football Association, a decision he said he made before the World Cup. The Football Association had started talks before the World Cup about extending Martinez’s expiring contract, but according to Martinez’s lawyer, Jesse De Preter, the Football Association did not continue. That would have led to Martinez dropping out.
In retrospect, it is a good thing that Martinez’s contract was not extended for the World Cup, because after six years and a disappointing campaign in Qatar, support for the Spaniard was gone.
Last Monday, the association was supposed to put its heads together for the first time to start the succession procedure, but that meeting was canceled because the Board of Directors of the Football Association dropped out: a signal. On Tuesday, the heads were put together and the folds smoothed out.
“Within the Council, concern had arisen about the future of the Red Devils,” the Football Association now admits. “The past few days have been quite turbulent. We shouldn’t be silly about that. Just like the group discussion at the Red Devils, it has done us well as the Board of Directors to name things and talk them out. After an open discussion, the violins have been tuned and work is immediately started on an extensive sporting evaluation and the search for a successor to Roberto Martinez as national coach”, says Peter Bossaert.
Taskforce will help to find a new national coach
Sven Jaecques is one of the coming men in Belgian football. As general manager of Antwerp, he appointed Marc Overmars as sports officer. — © BELGIUM
For the search for a successor, the Football Association goes back to a formula that led to the appointment of Roberto Martinez in 2016: the establishment of a Task Force.
“The Football Association has asked the Pro League whether it wants to provide football technical expertise and is pleased to announce that in addition to Peter Bossaert (CEO KBVB), the KBVB directors Sven Jaecques (R. Antwerp FC) and Pierre Locht (R. Standard de Liège) will be part of the Task Force. At the request of the RBFA, the Taskforce is completed with Bart Verhaeghe (Club Brugge KV), who was asked to share his knowledge and experience again. The Taskforce will make an evaluation of the sporting situation, determine the profile of the new national coach and open the vacancy. It will nominate the final candidate from the list of candidates to the Board of Directors.”
The Task Force gets to work immediately.
Pierre Locht, pictured here in a 2020 photo with then-Standard chairman Bruno Venanzi, is a lawyer who recently became CEO of Standard. — © BELGAIMAGE
New organizational chart for technical department
The Taskforce will also use the sporting evaluation to draw up a (new) organizational chart for the technical department of the Football Association. After all, Roberto Martinez was also technical director in addition to national coach.
There is also appreciation for Martinez’s work: “Roberto Martinez was a great ambassador for our Belgian football for 6 years. With Martinez as national coach, Belgium was number 1 in the world ranking for 4 years, qualified 4 times for a final tournament (including the Final Four of the Nations League) and the most beautiful memory is probably the third place at the World Cup in Russia. In addition, he had a major impact as Technical Director. The RBFA has made a great leap forward under Martinez, installed a real high performance culture and laid the foundation for the long-term future.”
