The Belgian national football team is the national team that has represented Belgium in all international soccer matches and tournaments since 1904. Known by the nickname “Red Devils”. One of the oldest European national soccer teams, which took part in all small and large tournaments in the early 20th century. Major achievements include bronze medals at the Twenty-first World Championships (2018), silver (1980), and bronze medals (1972) at the European Championships.
The Belgians have participated in all three pre-war World Cups. However, there they suffered four defeats in four matches and, accordingly, were eliminated after the first stage of the competition.
The first successful performance of the Belgian national team at the Mundials dates back to 1982. At the Spanish championship, Belgians came to the rank of vice-champions of Europe and were defeated by the group teams of Argentina and El Salvador, and the team of Hungary parted in peace.
Then Belgium played at four more World Cups, in three cases coming out of the group, and losing in the 1/8 finals to very strong opponents. England in 1990, Germany in 1998, and Brazil in 2002.
The Belgians missed the 2006 and 2010 World Cups but returned to the Mundials with an incredibly talented generation of players capable of much. Having won three victories in the group, the Belgians not without difficulty defeated the United States team in the 1/8 finals and then lost to Argentina with a score of 0:1.
Belgium has played at the European Championship six times, the 2024 tournament will be the seventh. “Red Devils” never won the continental championship, but won bronze in 1972 and silver in 1980.
The Belgian national team plays under the flag of the Royal Belgian Football Association. Well, and the Royal Belgian Football Association – the royal emblem. The first had the abbreviation URBSFA (Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association), a flag, monograms, and, necessarily, a crown. Later they also added an abbreviation in Dutch: KBVB (Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond). In 2019, the Belgians revamped the logo, keeping the overall style.
The first official logo of the Belgian National Football Team was introduced in 1920 and stayed with the country for thirty years. It was based on the heraldic symbol of the country — the golden lion. On the black shield are a golden rampant lion with red claws and a red tongue sticking out (which is often called in heraldry: “Belgian lion”, formerly “Brabant lion”). The Golden Lion, a symbol of power, strength, independence, and nobility, has adorned the Belgian coat of arms since 1837.
In 1950 the heraldic lion was redesigned in a more modern and abstract manner. It was stylized, being formed by the smooth solid intertwined elements with clean contours. The color palette and the direction of the symbol are the things. That has stayed unchanged.
The Belgian lion was removed from the Belgian National Football Team’s visual identity in 1981. The logo turned into a classy shield with the pointed bottom and arched top borders, and the body, painted in the stripes of the Belgian National flag. The vertical black, yellow, and red fragments were enclosed into a wide black frame with a yellow wreath embedded by small red berries. The top part of the crest featured a fancy crown on it.
Another redesign happened to the Belgian National Football Team logo in 1984. The concept remained the same, but the style was minimalized. The contours of the crest became more triangular, and the frame was now set in stricter lines, with the golden background and thin black lines making up an ornament. The crown was also redrawn in a more laconic way. However, the central part of the emblem remained the same.
In 1989 the hybrid of two previous versions was adopted as the official logo for the Belgium National Football Team. The crown was copied from the logo of 1984, but placed on a black background, while the framing had the same golden leaves, but with the berries removed. The body of the crest was accompanied by the “URBSFA KBVB” lettering in a darker yellow.
The redesign of 1991 has only played with the shades of the lettering — now the bodies of the capital characters featured the same color as the yellow stripe on the crest and the leaves of the framing wreath. The badge started looking more balanced and elegant.
In 1996 the black background behind the crown and the ornate golden frame of the crest was replaced by a red one. In this palette, the logo became more dramatic and bright. There was also a second version, with a transparent background, which was lighter and more stylish.
The black background returned to the visual identity of the Belgian National Football Team in 2000. It was exactly the same design as in 1991, but the shade of yellow was darkened up and got warmer, close to orange.
In 2009 the logo of the team was refined and modernized. The contours of all elements got cleaner, the outlined leaves on the frame were redrawn in solid gold, and the background behind the crest became transparent again.
A completely new logo for the Belgian National Football Team was introduced in 2019. It is still a crest, still the same color palette, composed of gold, black, yellow, and red, still the crown and the leafy ornament, and still the flag as the main element. But literally, everything was rethought and redrawn, making up a super cool contemporary vision of the traditional details.
The “Royal Belgian” lettering from the official emblem of the Belgium National Football Team is set in the uppercase of a bold sans-serif typeface with laconic contours of the characters, and perfect spacing. The type looks pretty close to Amfibiatrade or Norpethtrade.
As for the color palette of the team’s emblem, it is based on the national tricolor from the flag of Belgium, accompanied by solid gold details. The combination looks chic and elegant and shows the values of heritage and traditions.