Kits In home matches, the team's
outfield players traditionally wear the colours of the
Belgian flag: black, yellow and red. in 2014, the squad introduced a third, yellow kit. Their shirts are often trimmed with
tricolores at the margins. Since 1981, the RBFA emblem has been the national team's badge; the previous badge was a yellow lion on a black shield, 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. For their first unofficial match in 1901, the Belgian team wore white jerseys with tricoloured bands on the upper arms. 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". 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". During the 1970s, manager Raymond Goethals chose an all-white combination to improve the team's visibility during evening matches. and closed a sponsorship deal with the RBFA until 2026; it was also the supplier from 1974 to 1980, and from 1983 to 1991.
Diadora (1992–1998), where the team finished third.
Media coverage The first live coverage of a Belgian sporting event occurred on 3 May 1931, when journalist
Gust De Muynck commentated on the football match between Belgium and the Netherlands on radio. Later, football broadcasts were also televised. As 60 per cent of Belgians speak
Dutch and 40 per cent speak
French, commentaries for the national team matches are provided in both languages. The matches are not broadcast in
German—Belgium's third official language. Initially the matches were transmitted mainly on public television channels: the former BRTN (now
VRT) in Dutch, and the
RTBF in French. Since 1994, commercial channels such as
vtm and its sister channel
Kanaal 2, and
VIER in
Flanders, have purchased broadcasting rights. The Euro 2016
round of 16 match against Hungary was the most-watched programme in Belgian television history, with an audience of over 4 million viewers out of 11.3 million Belgians. In April 2014, the VRT started transmitting a nine-piece, behind-the-scenes documentary about the national team filmed during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, titled
Iedereen Duivel (
Everybody Devil). Cable broadband provider
Telenet broadcast an eight-part documentary about individual players titled
Rode Helden (
Red Heroes).
Side activities Multiple events were organised for the fans during the squad's peak popularity in the 2010s. During the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, a string of interactive events called the
Devil Challenges were organised. The premise was that small groups of international players would do a favour in return for each of the five comprehensive chores their supporters completed ("colour Belgium red", "gather 500,000
decibels", etc.), all of which were accomplished. In June 2013, the Belgian national team's first ever Fan Day attracted over 20,000 supporters; a second was held after the 2014 World Cup. On the days of Belgium's 2014 World Cup group matches, large dance events titled
Dance with the Devils took place in three Belgian cities. This activity was repeated during Belgium's Euro 2016 group matches. Occasionally, the Belgian team directly supported charity. Between 1914 and 1941 they played at least five unofficial matches of which the returns were for charitable purposes: two against France, and three against the Netherlands. In 1986, when the Belgian delegation reached the World Cup semi-finals, the squad started a project titled Casa Hogar, an idea of delegation leader
Michel D'Hooghe. Casa Hogar is a home for street children in the Mexican industrial city of
Toluca, to which the footballers donated part of their tournament bonuses. In August 2013, the national team supported four social projects through the charity fund Football+ Foundation, by playing an A-match with a plus sign on the shoulders of their jerseys and auctioning the shirts. In the 21st century, several national team players acted up against discrimination. In 2002, the national squad held its first anti-
racism campaign in which they posed with slogans. A home Euro 2012 qualifier was given the theme of respect for
diversity in 2010; this UEFA-supported action was part of the European
FARE Action Week. Ex-Red Devil
Dimitri Mbuyu—the first black Belgium player (in 1987)—was engaged as godfather, and other foreign, current, and former footballers who played in the
Belgian top division participated. In 2018, four national team players spoke up against
homophobic violence, in a video clip made by organisation
Kick It Out.
Nickname, logo and mascot After a 1905 match, a Dutch reporter wrote that three Belgian footballers "work[ed] as devils". A year later
Léopold FC manager Pierre Walckiers nicknamed the players Red Devils, inspired by their jersey colour, and the achievement of three successive victories in 1906. an item that is often associated with the devil. Apart from that, the national squad has also had four official
anthropomorphous mascots. The first was a lion in team kit named Diabolix, In accordance with their epithet, the next mascots were a red super-devil and two fan-made modern devils; the one introduced in 2018 was named "Red". A trident logo, referring to a devil, is also used frequently.
Supporters 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. The nationwide interest in the national team has also been reflected by the occasional presence of
Belgian monarchs at their matches since 1914. One of the greatest moments for the Belgian team and their
12th man was in 1986 when the Belgian delegation at the 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. at the 2018 World Cup|alt=Belgian fans wearing red at the 2018 World Cup in Kaliningrad The team's deterioration after the 2002 World Cup led 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". 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, and was the only supporter to attend their matches in Armenia in 2009. Just before the kick-off of a 2014 World Cup home qualifier, Belgium's footballers saw a
tifo banner, sized depicting a devil in the national colours. The presence of many Belgian players in top leagues abroad, such as the
Premier League, and promising results under Marc Wilmots, increased fans' enthusiasm and belief in a successful World Cup campaign. Because of this popularity, two Belgian monuments were decorated in national colours for the 2014 FIFA World Cup; the
Manneken Pis statue received a child-sized version of the new Belgian uniform, and facets of the
Atomium's upper sphere were covered in black, yellow and red vinyl.
Rivalries Belgium's main football rivals are its neighbors
the Netherlands and
France, with which it shares close cultural and political relations.
Netherlands The matchup between the Belgian and
Dutch team is known as the Low Countries
derby, they have played each other in 129 official matches.
France The clash between Belgium and France is nicknamed
le Match Sympathique in French ("the Friendly Match"); they have contested 78 official matches . 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. Belgium maintained the better record with most wins over the succeeding 100 years, but since 2018 the gap has closed with 5 successive losses to France. ==Stadium==