By Samindra Kunti
February 10 – Steven Martens has resigned as CEO of the Belgian FA after a reign of four years. His position had become untenable after allegations of financial mismanagement.
Martens joined the KBVB in 2011 and turned the unwieldy football body into a modern FA. The KBVB netted an all-time high revenue of €60 million in 2014. During the World Cup the Red Devils became the darlings of the Belgian public.
But in recent months Martens’s position had come under scrutiny. Two weeks ago, an internal audit surfaced, revealing that the KBVB closed out 2014 with €206,000 deficit. There were also questionable contracts with Bonka Circus, the production house of Vincent Kompany, and advertising agency Boondoggle. Martens’s policies were costly and not transparent.
On Monday Martens announced his resignation after the Board of Directors had asked for a vote of confidence last Friday. The representatives of the Pro League and the ACFF, the Walloon Amateur Football Association, had vehemently opposed Martens’s management.
“After consulting family and friends, I decided to make my mandate available,” said Martens in a statement. “I have been four fantastic years.”
“I am very proud of what we have achieved in four years of ambitious growth. Of course we made some mistakes during these rapid reforms, which we have learned from for the future.”
Local newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports, however, that Martens did not resign voluntarily, but was pushed to the exit door by KBVB chairman Francois De Keersmaecker. Martens received a severance payment of €336,000, the equivalent of his annual salary, according to the report.
“He has done things that have been very positive for Belgian football ‘tout cours’, for the in-house operations, but also for the national team,” said De Keersmaecker about his then CEO last week to Insideworldfootball. “For a big part, Martens and I dictated policy. Of course, I support him because what has happened and the direction we are going in is jointly [decided] by the board of directors, the executive committee and me.”
At the end of June the KBVB will elect a new chairman. De Keersmaecker may have sacrificed Martens to win support among the Pro League constituency. At present De Keersmaecker is running unopposed for re-election.
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