Throughout their history, the Belgium national team have played at 24 home locations in 12 urban areas, [1] most often in the country's Capital Region, Brussels. The national King Baudouin Stadium, with a capacity of 50,024 people, [2] is the usual playing ground nowadays. At this location, the majority of the Red Devils' home matches took place. Other stadiums (with a smaller capacity) are normally assigned as home ground in case a rather small audience is to be expected or when the national stadium is in repair.
Belgium's first official match in 1904 was a home game, at the Stade du Vivier d'Oie in Uccle. [3] Before their first official match in the national Jubilee Stadium in Brussels in 1931, the Red Devils made 67 home appearances in the current urban areas of Antwerp, Brussels, Liège, Seraing and Verviers. In that era, Antwerp and its surroundings often hosted the Belgian home matches (32 times), mostly explained by the frequent confrontations against the national team of Antwerp's neighbouring country Netherlands, and the 1920 Olympics football tournament held at the Olympisch Stadion (the "Kiel").
From 1931 on, the large majority of the home games have been played in the stadium on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels. Inaugurated as "Jubilee Stadium" in 1930 with an unofficial match against Netherlands, [4] and renamed "Heysel Stadium" in 1946, it underwent a drastical transformation in 1995. From then on, the stadium was named after the late King Baudouin I. Also over the totality of home games since 1904, the location of the current King Baudouin Stadium accounts for the majority of home games played. In May 2013, it was announced that the King Baudouin Stadium would be demolished to create place for housing and that a new stadium would arise nearby at the Heysel. [5] In December of that year the involved parties agreed that this new stadium would no longer contain an athletic track as is currently the case. [6] However, the plans for the new stadium were shelved when no building permit for it was awarded. [7]
Some Belgian home stadiums have served as background for major tournaments when they hosted the 1920 Olympics (including its football tournament) and the 1972 and 2000 European Championships. In September 2014 Brussels was assigned as one of the 13 host cities for the 2020 European Championship, with an upcoming new stadium ("Eurostadium") as venue for four tournament matches. [8] However, the UEFA later awarded the games to the Wembley Stadium when delays were causing uncertainty whether the new stadium in Brussels would be completed in time. [9]
Some stadiums were given different names at different times; only the official name at the last time the national team played is mentioned below. Statistics include official FIFA-recognised matches only; [A] unofficial games can be found here .
Number of matches | Stadium | City area (town/quarter) | First international | Opponent | Last international | Opponent |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
219 | King Baudouin Stadium | Brussels* (City of Brussels) | 11 October 1931 | ![]() | 19 November 2023 | ![]() |
40 | Bosuilstadion | Antwerp (Deurne) | 1 November 1923 | ![]() | 12 October 1988 | ![]() |
28 | Constant Vanden Stock Stadium | Brussels* (Anderlecht) | 27 October 1965 | ![]() | 29 March 2022 | ![]() |
19 | Stade Maurice Dufrasne | Liège (Sclessin) | 2 January 1927 | ![]() | 31 August 2017 | ![]() |
15 | Olympisch Stadion | Antwerp (Kiel) | 29 August 1920 | ![]() | 7 September 2005 | ![]() |
12 | Edmond Machtens Stadium | Brussels* (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek) | 21 May 1921 | ![]() | 22 April 1995 | ![]() |
10 | Beerschot Stadion | Antwerp (Kiel) | 30 April 1905 | ![]() | 15 March 1914 | ![]() |
7 | Stade du Vivier d'Oie | Brussels* (Uccle) | 1 May 1904 | ![]() | 9 March 1919 | ![]() |
6 | Den Dreef | Leuven (Heverlee) | 11 November 2020 | ![]() | 15 November 2023 | ![]() |
5 | Longchamps | Brussels* (Uccle) | 18 April 1908 | ![]() | 17 July 1920 | ![]() |
5 | Albert Dyserynck Stadion | Bruges (Sint-Andries) | 22 October 1966 | ![]() | 1 June 1974 | ![]() |
4 | Parc Duden | Brussels* (Forest) | 6 March 1921 | ![]() | 11 May 1929 | ![]() |
4 | Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt | Liège (Rocourt) | 15 April 1922 | ![]() | 14 May 1939 | ![]() |
4 | Stade du Pays de Charleroi | Charleroi | 23 February 1946 | ![]() | 4 September 2004 | ![]() |
4 | Jan Breydel Stadium | Bruges (Sint-Andries) | 23 August 1989 | ![]() | 14 November 2017 | ![]() |
3 | Jules Ottenstadion | Ghent (Gentbrugge) | 11 June 2003 | ![]() | 9 February 2011 | ![]() |
3 | Cristal Arena | Genk (Waterschei) | 24 May 2006 | ![]() | 28 March 2009 | ![]() |
2 | Stadion aan de Broodstraat | Antwerp (Kiel) | 20 February 1912 | ![]() | 23 November 1913 | ![]() |
2 | Stade du Panorama | Verviers | 2 November 1913 | ![]() | 7 November 1971 | ![]() |
2 | Stade du Pont d'Ougrée | Seraing (Ougrée) | 13 December 1925 | ![]() | 25 May 1930 | ![]() |
1 | Cointe | Liège (Cointe) | 23 April 1911 | ![]() | 23 April 1911 | ![]() |
1 | Rue du Forest | Brussels* (Forest) | 30 April 1911 | ![]() | 30 April 1911 | ![]() |
1 | Regenboogstadion | Waregem | 9 October 1968 | ![]() | 9 October 1968 | ![]() |
1 | Daknamstadion | Lokeren (Daknam) | 20 September 1978 | ![]() | 20 September 1978 | ![]() |
385 | 24 locations | 12 urban regions | 1 May 1904 | ![]() | 19 November 2023 | ![]() |
The Heysel Stadium disaster was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup final. The stadium was in need of maintenance and had not been adequately updated. It had failed inspections prior to the disaster, and the wall collapsed under the force. Thirty-nine people—mostly Italians and Juventus fans—were killed and 600 were injured in the confrontation.
The King Baudouin Stadium is a sports ground in Brussels, Belgium. Located in the north-western district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in view of the 1935 Brussels International Exposition. It was inaugurated on 23 August 1930, with Crown Prince Leopold attending the opening ceremony. The stadium hosted 70,000 at the time. Its name honours King Baudouin, Leopold's successor as King of the Belgians from 1951 to his death in 1993.
The Heysel Plateau or Heysel Park, usually shortened to Heysel or Heizel, is a neighbourhood, park and exhibition space in Laeken, in the north-west of the City of Brussels, Belgium, where the Brussels International Exposition of 1935 and the 1958 Brussels World's Fair took place.
Football was one of the 154 events at the 1920 Summer Olympics, held in Antwerp, Belgium. It was the fifth time association football was on the Olympic schedule. The tournament expanded to 15 countries, including a non-European nation (Egypt) for the first time.
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 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972.
The Belgium national football team has represented Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded by the Belgian team's supervising body, the Royal Belgian Football Association. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, from 1980 to 2002 and again from 2014 onwards, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. Most of Belgium's home matches are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.
Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, commonly referred to as Union Saint-Gilloise and abbreviated as RUSG, is a Belgian professional football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s, it has been based at the Joseph Marien Stadium in the neighbouring municipality of Forest. The club is one of the most successful in the history of Belgian football. The club won eleven Belgian championships between 1904 and 1935, making it the most successful Belgian club before World War II.
The Belgian Cup is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed to partake. As of 1964, the Belgian Cup has been organised annually. Since the 2015–16 edition, the Belgian Cup is called the Croky Cup, for sponsorship purposes. The final traditionally takes place at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
The 1962–63 European Cup was the eighth season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by AC Milan, who beat two-time defending champions Benfica in the final at Wembley Stadium, London, on 22 May 1963. Milan's victory was the first by an Italian club.
Heysel or Heizel is a Brussels Metro station on the northern branch of line 6. It is located in Laeken, in the north-west of the City of Brussels, Belgium, and serves the Heysel/Heizel Plateau, famous for the World's Fairs of 1935 and 1958, the King Baudouin Stadium and the Atomium. The Bruparck entertainment park and the Centenary Palace, home to the Brussels Exhibition Centre, are also located nearby.
The 1996 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final was a football match contested between Paris Saint-Germain of France and Rapid Wien of Austria. It was the final match of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the 36th Cup Winners' Cup final. The final was held at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on 8 May 1996, hosting its first European club final since the scenes of the Heysel Stadium disaster eleven years prior. Paris Saint-Germain won the match 1–0, thanks to a free kick from Bruno Ngotty.
Group B of UEFA Euro 2000 began on 10 June and ended on 19 June 2000. Italy won the group ahead of Turkey. Belgium and Sweden were eliminated.
Alain Courtois, a Belgian Member of Parliament, announced in October 2006 that a formal bid would be made on behalf of the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to host either the 2018 FIFA World Cup or 2022 version, but later decided to concentrate solely on the 2018 version . In June 2007 the three countries launched their campaign not as a joint bid in the manner of the Korea-Japan World Cup in 2002, but emphasizing it as a common political organization. Luxembourg would not host any matches or automatically qualify for the finals in a successful Benelux bid, but would host a FIFA congress.
The bidding process for the UEFA Euro 2020 is the process by which the location for the 16th European Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2020, was selected. The process officially began on 21 March 2012 with the intent to announce the hosts in late 2013 or early 2014. Despite interest from Turkey, a joint bid from Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Wales and a proposal from Georgia and Azerbaijan, UEFA announced on 6 December 2012 that it had made the unprecedented decision to host the tournament in multiple cities across Europe.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil qualification UEFA Group A was a UEFA qualifying group for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The group comprised Belgium, Croatia, Macedonia, Scotland, Serbia and Wales.
The qualification for the 2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship were a series of association football matches between national teams to determine the participants of the 2014 Final Tournament held in Norway.
The UEFA European Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by UEFA. Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UEFA European Nations Cup, changing to the current name in 1968. Starting with the 1996 tournament, specific championships are often referred to in the form "Euro 2008" or whichever year is appropriate. Prior to entering the tournament, all teams other than the host nations compete in a qualifying process.
Eurostadium was a proposed stadium in Grimbergen, Belgium, just north of Brussels. It would have had a capacity of 62,613. In June 2015, the building deadline was set for 2019. It would have hosted matches for UEFA Euro 2020, and would have become the home ground of the Belgium national football team.
Group F of UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying was one of the ten groups to decide which teams would qualify for the UEFA Euro 2024 final tournament in Germany. Group F consisted of five teams: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Estonia, and Sweden. The teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.