Steven Martens (born 25 May 1964 in Lier) is a Belgian sports executive and the ex-

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

Royal Belgian Football Association The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA; ; ; ) is the governing body of football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA in 1904 and UEFA in 1954 and was based in Brussels, not far from the King Baudouin Stadium. Since October 2021, th ...

. He obtained a master's degree in classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

and became a top trainer in

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

at the

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

trainers' school

Bloso Sport Vlaanderen is the Flemish sports agency. Within Belgium, it is the Flemish counterpart of French-speaking ADEPS. Both agencies were founded in 1969 to succeed the state-founded national INEPS/NILOS. Until 2016 Sport Vlaanderen was called B ...

. In his youth years he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and tennis. He is a brother of the (socialist) sp.a-politician Bart Martens.

Tennis and football

He became a tennis coach in 1987 within the Belgian Tennis Federation with players as

Sabine Appelmans Sabine Appelmans (born 22 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Belgium. She was Belgium's Fed Cup Captain (sports), captain from 2007 until 2011. Career Appelmans started playing at the neighbour's court at the age of seven ...

Laurence Courtois Laurence Courtois (born 18 January 1976) is a former professional female tennis player from Belgium. Courtois, who was born in Kortrijk, won four doubles titles on the WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship ...

Kim Clijsters Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (; born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 20 weeks, and as the world No. 1 in women's double ...

Justine Henin Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 117 weeks, i ...

Kirsten Flipkens Kirsten "Flipper" Flipkens (; born 10 January 1986) is a Belgian tennis coach and a former professional player. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Flipkens has won one singles title on the WTA T ...

Xavier Malisse Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a Belgian tennis coach and a former professional player. Born in the north-western Flemish Region, Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed ''X-Man'', he is one of only two Belgian men (the other being David G ...

Olivier Rochus Olivier Rochus (; born 18 January 1981) is a former Belgian tennis player. Rochus won two singles titles in his career and in 2004 won the French Open doubles title, partnering fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse. His career-high singles ranking is wo ...

Kristof Vliegen Kristof Vliegen (born 22 June 1982) is a Belgian former tennis player. He plays right-handed and he turned professional in 2001. He was a semi-finalist in Chennai in 2006 and in May of the same year, he reached the final of the ATP tourname ...

and

Steve Darcis Steve Darcis (, born 13 March 1984) is a Belgian coach and former professional tennis player. In his career, he won two ATP titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 38 on 22 May 2017. Personal life Steve Darcis was born i ...

. In 1997 he was awarded the ITF Coach fair play award. Afterwards he became technical coordinator of the (Flemish) VTV training centre from 1998 to 2005, to keep the function of technical director until 2006. Additionally, Steven Martens was captain from Belgian national tennis teams in the

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

team (1993-1998) and the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

team. In 2004 he was coach from the national team at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, the tournament at which Justine Henin would win Olympic tennis gold for Belgium. From 2007 on he was active as player director with the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), the tennis federation of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. There, he was busy with scouting and education from younger players and coaches and he took care of the support and guidance for top players. Martens was also a regular co-commentator during tennis matches at the Belgian public broadcast VRT. On 1 May 2011, he was assigned as new

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

(CEO) of the

, as successor of Jean-Marie Philips. In an interview one year after his entry as Secretary-General he explained his long-term vision to increase the Belgian interest for playing football (also the women's interest) and to improve the Belgian FA's image and Belgian stadiums. Martens resigned on 9 February 2015 after accusations of bad management and financial losses.

External links

Website Royal Belgian Football Association

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martens, Steven 1965 births Living people Belgian sports executives and administrators KU Leuven alumni Belgian tennis coaches Belgian male tennis players People from Lier, Belgium Sportspeople from Antwerp Province 21st-century Belgian sportsmen 21st-century Belgian businesspeople 20th-century Belgian sportsmen