Privacy RBFA

PRIVACY STATEMENT
Version 04/09/2026

The Royal Belgian Football Association (hereinafter referred to as 'RBFA') respects your
privacy. Through our privacy statement, we would like to inform you in a clear, transparent,
simple but correct way of the following: when, why and how the RBFA collects, uses, shares
and secures personal data? From many people who transmit us personal data through the
website and applications of the RBFA, as well from members when they register with the
RBFA and its wings (ACFF and Voetbal Vlaanderen).
1 WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE CONSIDER
The Royal Belgian Football Association and its wings "Association des Clubs Francophones
de Football" and "Voetbal Vlaanderen" ("the RBFA and its wings" hereafter) aim at the
organization, dissemination and the promotion of all forms of football. It is understood in a
non-exhaustive way: outdoor football, indoor football, football for the disabled, regardless of
age, sex, origin, political belief, etc., and whatever the type of competition. To this end, it
organizes regional / provincial (mass sporters) and national (elite athletes) competitions and
a national cup competition (Belgian Cup) where it is essential to respect the principles of
sports integrity and sportsmanship. fair play among others. The disciplinary bodies of the
RBFA and its wings undertake to uphold the basic principles of football and thus contribute to
the fairness of sport. At the international level, the RBFA is also active with its national youth
teams, the Belgian Red Flames and the Belgian Red Devils obviously. It is in his attributions
to convince a maximum of supporters to support our national teams and to offer them optimal
comfort during their games.
The training of highly qualified coaches is also one of the main tasks of the RBFA and its
wings, as these people are involved in the further technical, tactical, physical and mental
development of junior footballers. Through an extensive network of talent scouts, talented
young players are invited to take part in selection matches where they can compete against
the best players from their province. These talent detection days have a place in the elite
sports policy and are sometimes the beginning of a good career at the national or even
international level with a national team selection as a climax.
No football without referees. They are also trained and supported so that they can continue
to develop in order to reach the highest possible level.
To achieve these goals, the RBFA and its wings enact a federal regulation, but by its
affiliation with UEFA and FIFA, international regulations must also be respected. By
becoming affiliated with the RBFA and its wings, the interested parties expressly agree with
these regulations and undertake to respect them at all times. By developing different mobile
applications, the RBFA and its wings are also trying to contribute to increased visibility and
the promotion of football in all its facets.
In addition to this organizational and talent development component, the RBFA and its wings
also have a social role to play. Football can indeed be a means to achieve a number of social
goals. The RBFA and its wings focus on different themes such as zero tolerance on racism
and discrimination, inclusion, health, children and human rights and sustainability. Through
various social projects, they also try to highlight the key values of "respect, fair play and
education" and to promote them within Belgian society.
This privacy statement emanates:
• From the Royal Belgian Football Association asbl, having the business number
0403.543.160 and headquartered at Marathonlaan 129, 1020 Brussels;
• from the wings:
o Association des Clubs Francophones de Football asbl, having the business
number 0820.547.150 and headquartered at Rue de Bruxelles 480, 1480
Tubize;
o Voetbal Vlaanderen vzw, having the business number 0808.165.002 and
headquartered at Romeinsesteenweg 468, 1853 Strombeek-Bever;
•
These entities are commonly referred to as the Federation hereinafter.
2 THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2.1 WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT?
Depending on your relationship with the Federation, we collect different types of personal
data. For some services, additional personal data is required. Any member and user of any
of the Federation's applications is able to choose his/her privacy preferences. Because all
Federation’s applications are associated, you can change your privacy settings under the
profile settings of each application for which you have been registered. Depending on the
selected privacy settings, additional personal data may be collected and processed (see
chapter 6).
2.1.1 As a member of the Federation or its wings
If you register as a member (such as a player, coach, member of staff, referee, steward,
volunteer, etc.), your (sur) name, contact information such as your phone number and email
address, nationality, date and place of birth, photo ID and sex / gender will be requested.
This information is necessary for the execution of the agreement (affiliation) that you wish to
sign with the Federation, unique identification or in the context of the organization of
competitions (sports, administrative or disciplinary), the generation of a single affiliation
number (legal requirement from the Flemish and French Community) to associate a player to
the correct competition and age category and to organize fair competitions, including taking
and communicating disciplinary decisions. The acceptance of the collection and processing
of personal data is a necessary condition to be able to join the Federation and to register with
a club and participate in competitive football.
Voetbal Vlaanderen and the RBFA process personal data of referees as part of their
operations and the organization of football competitions. They do so using authorized
persons who act solely according to their instructions (such as through RefAssist or EKickoff) and who do not use the data for any other purposes. The processing includes,
among other things, the registration and administration of referees (such as preferences,
holidays, and expenses), the appointment of referees for matches, the evaluation of referee
performances, and the organization of training sessions and courses, including video
analysis and specific guidelines. Personal data processed in this context includes
identification and contact details, preferences, schedules, appointments, evaluations, bank
account numbers, and, in some cases, video footage.
In order to guarantee the quality of your personal data, we prefer to collect this information
via the eID. When reading data on your eID, we will limit ourselves to the data mentioned
above. However, if you have any objections to reading your eID, the data must always be
entered manually into the system. The Federation must also collect data from your status
career, such as the club and the team in which you play, your status as an amateur or paid
sportsman, transfers, yellow and red cards, minutes of play, accident reports (for questions
of insurance), and other 'sports data'.
Finally, we collect additional personal data from the following affiliates in order to correctly
record player status (amateur or paid sportsman):
• Players with the amateur status of all field soccer clubs playing with a senior team in
higher divisions and provincial divisions;
• Players with amateur status from all futsal clubs playing with their first team in
national divisions;
• Players with paid sportsman status in all divisions and disciplines.
Of the aforementioned affiliates, we collect the player contracts concluded with the clubs,
including some financial data (in the context of the license files on the secure and protected
Platform of the Licensing Auditorate), in order to follow up that the Federation regulations are
complied with by players and clubs, to prevent feigning, and to preserve the integrity of
soccer competitions.
2.1.2 As a (registered) agent or player for whom they act
In accordance with employment regulations, registration requirements for sports agents and
mixed management of the labor market, as well as the FIFA Regulations on Working with
Agents, the RBFA processes personal data of intermediaries and players (including coaches)
for whom they perform. Specifically, it concerns the representation agreements between
agents and players (or coaches) and overviews of paid invoices from agents to players,
coaches or clubs. The RBFA collects this (personal) data directly from the parties involved or
(as far as invoices are concerned) from the club where the player is affiliated. These
documents may contain financial (personal) data. In accordance with the Prevention of
Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act (the AML/CTF Act) of Sept. 18, 2017,
these records must be kept for 10 years.
2.1.3 As a member of fanclub 1895
If you register as a member of the fanclub1895, the RBFA collects basic personal information
like name, fanclub, contact details, language, nationality, ticket purchases and other basic
personal data that is required to fulfill the role of the fan club.
2.1.4 As a user of any of the applications or services of the Federation or
its fanclub
If you create an account on the website or in one of the Federation's applications (e.g. RBFA
mobile app or ticketing platform), you will need to fill in an email address and a password and
we will ask for information associated with the account, such as (sur) name, date of birth, and
gender. If you participate in competitions on our platforms (e.g., score predictions or quizzes)
or votings, your answers will be collected. In addition, we collect data that you provide to
users of the applications (for example, the matches you are going to follow). If you register in
any of the Federation's apps using the social media option, we'll also be able to access
information related to your social media profile. Additional information, including a profile
picture, is optional.
Depending on the services and features you use, and the permissions you provide, we may also
process information about your location. This may include precise location information obtained
from your mobile device, approximate location information, or general location information inferred
from information such as your IP address. Location information may be associated with your device,
account or other information we hold about you.
The information collected via the website or any application of the Federation, will depend
mainly on the authorization granted by the user. Therefore, you can still withdraw this
authorization if you no longer want the Federation to collect and process your data. However,
keep in mind that some information is necessary if you want to benefit from certain services
of the Federation.
If you use Facebook to register, please take note of its data policy via this link.
2.1.5 As a beneficial owner or representative of a sponsor
The RBFA is legally obliged to obtain and process personal data about sponsorship
relationships, their ultimate beneficial owners and their representatives under the Anti-Money
Laundering / Terrorist Financing Act (the AML/CTF Act) of 18 September 2017. The
collection of personal data for these purposes is necessary to carry out a task in the public
interest within the meaning of applicable privacy and data protection legislation.
Personal data obtained in the context of AML/CTF is processed by the compliance function
using a compliance tool that serves as a record-keeping system designed for the purposes of
the prevention, detection or investigation of potential money laundering and terrorist
financing. In line with our legal obligations, our processing activities shall allow applying:
• Appropriate KYC Sponsorship Due Diligence measures for new and existing
sponsorship relationships, their ultimate beneficial owners and their representatives;
• A Risk Based Approach (RBA) as the cornerstone of a data driven RBFA AML/CTF
framework.
The RFBA will not process personal data obtained in a way that is incompatible with the
AML/CTF purposes without consent from individuals to do so.
The Act foresees in transitory measures to facilitate the increase of the retention period from
5 years to 10 years:
• For sponsorship relationships ended from 2012 to 2017, data will be kept for 7 years.
• For sponsorship relationships ended during 2018, data will be kept for 8 years.
• For sponsorship relationships ended during 2019, data will be kept for 9 years.
• For sponsorship relationships ended as from 2020, data will be kept for 10 years.
2.2 COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
In addition to the above information, we use cookies and similar technologies, if necessary
from third parties, to secure our systems, measure the use of our services or optimize your
experience on our systems. Google Analytics is an external service used by us. By using
cookies, Google Analytics collects and stores data such as time of visit, pages visited, time
spent on each page of the RBFA, the Internet Protocol address (GeoIP), and the type of
operating system used in the devices used to access the Website (for further information see
www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/). By using a browser plugin
(http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin/) provided by Google, you can opt out of
Google Analytics. If required by law, we will request your permission before cookies are
activated.
Data subjects are informed in advance about the existence and purpose of such a link with
each new individual commercial partner. They always retain the right to object to this or to
withdraw their consent.
Check out our cookies policy for more information.
2.3 PRIVACY OF MINORS
The Federation collects and processes obviously many personal data of children, as part of
its functioning as a sports federation and on its platforms for a service of the information
society. For this reason, we ask, when registering with the club or registering on a platform,
to fill in the details of one of the parents or guardian whose purpose is to obtain parental
authorization for personal data processing of children (under 13 years old). Through the
Family Management functionality in the RBFA mobile app, parents can set the privacy
preferences for their child.
2.4 RFBA-TAG
The RBFA may, in collaboration with its commercial partners, establish a link between the
databases of both entities. This link is made exclusively through a unique RBFA tag that
indicates that the same individual has an account with both the RBFA and the respective
commercial partner. No additional personal data is shared with the commercial partner via
this link. The only information exchanged is the confirmation that the user exists in both
systems. The linking and use of the RBFA tag are carried out solely for the purpose of
facilitating joint services, campaigns, or benefits for the users concerned.
2.5DIRECT MARKETING & SOFT OPT-IN
When you purchase or use products or services from the RBFA, we may inform you by email
about similar products or services offered by the RBFA.
This specifically means that:
• We only communicate to the email address you have directly provided to us;
• You are always given the opportunity, at the time your data is collected, to object to
the use of your email address for such communications;
• Every email we send contains a clear and simple option to unsubscribe;
• The content of our communication is always limited to RBFA products and services
that you can reasonably expect based on your previous purchase or use.
The following cases are included under this:
• RBFA national teams ticketing: if you have purchased tickets or personally registered
and claimed them through our ticketing system;
• RBFA merchandise: if you made a purchase via our official webshop;
• RBFA coaching & learning: if you use our learning platform or are affiliated as a
coach;
• RBFA 1895: if you are a member or use content within this platform;
• Other RBFA competitions and events (such as the Croky Cup, Red Flames, Red
Devils, U21, women’s football, referee training programs, etc.) for which you
previously purchased tickets or registered.
If, during the purchase or registration process, you explicitly consent to receiving broader
marketing communications (such as general newsletters, promotions, or information about
other teams or events), you will also receive this information.
3 WHY DO WE USE THIS DATA?
We collect and process your personal data for the following purposes:
• Processing your affiliation as a member of the Federation where unique identification
is crucial for administrative transactions (e.g., transfers, dismissals, disciplinary
proceedings, etc.) as well as legal obligations;
• Processing your affiliation with a club, your transfers, activities as a player or coach,
including disciplinary decisions;
• Processing accident reports and insurance issues that arise from injuries incurred as
a footballer;
• Sending invitations to talent detection days, coaching trainings or sports coaching;
• Processing your registration on the website or an application of the Federation;
• The preparation or execution of an agreement (affiliation) that you have entered into
with us according to a certain player statute and following up on compliance with the
association regulations;
• The preservation of the integrity and fair-play of the soccer competitions in Belgium
and the prevention of feigning by closing counter letters;
• To carry out a task in the public interest within the meaning of applicable privacy and
data protection legislation;
• In order to meet the legal or regulatory requirements to which we are subject (e.g.
guarantee safety in the stadiums), or obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering /
Terrorist Financing Act);
• Through studies, tests and statistics, monitor the operation and development of clubs
and competitions aimed at guaranteeing the growth of Belgian football;
• To provide general information about the Federation and direct communication about
your matches (e.g. discounts or location data), including, where you have enabled the
relevant functionality, location-based communications that may be relevant to your
location, such as notifications concerning matches, events, venues, ticketing,
services or offers;
• Publish match reports and sheets on our channels (e.g. RBFA mobile app);
• Reporting as a victim or witness of discrimination, transgressive behavior or
competition distortion;
• Optimize your usability on our platforms (e.g. automatic login, cookies);
• Medical statements of officials to guarantee safety;
• Detect technical problems on our platforms;
• Perform monitoring on our platforms;
• The organization of the social projects of the Federation;
• If we have a justified interest that will always be weighted in relation to your right to
privacy.
With your permission and following your privacy preferences, we collect personal data for the
following concrete purposes:
• Visualization of your player statistics on our platforms;
• Give users a personal experience of our platforms, with personalized notifications
(e.g., bannering, recommendations, …) through profiling or not and taking into
account your interests, preferences, your behavior on our platforms or social media;
• Where the relevant functionality has been enabled, use location information to provide
location-based notifications or communications that are relevant to a particular venue,
match, event or other location;
• Sending newsletters, whether or not personalized via profiling and taking into account
your interests, preferences, behavior on our platforms or social media;
• Personal communication through our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, etc.);
• Commercial actions of our partners.
4 WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH?
We share your personal data with service providers of the Federation, employees of the
(disciplinary) bodies of the Federation, as long as it is necessary for the execution of the
service.
We attempt to pseudonymize or anonymize your personal data if we share it with external
parties. This by aggregating enough personal data (e.g. statistical study) or by canceling
some parts of the personal data so that the information can no longer be associated with a
person.
We do not sell personal data to third parties and we do not pass it on to third parties without
your permission, except:
• Associated organizations that are part of the Federation ecosystem, namely the
RBFA or the wings (Voetbal Vlaanderen and ACFF);
• Your (fan) club if you are affiliated as a player or a fan;
• At the Pro League if you are affiliated with a D1A or D1B club;
• with the non-profit association Ligue Francophone de Football en Salle (LFFS) if you
are a futsal player, in order to avoid dual membership;
• To authorities (e.g. Sport Vlaanderen, ADEPS, Flemish Sports Federation, etc.) in the
context of facilitation;
• To FIFA and/or UEFA for administrative or disciplinary operations;
• To UEFA in the context of their benchmarking programme for policy and development
purposes of European football. The data is not used for commercial or marketing
purposes;
• To authorized correspondents and club employees of clubs designated by them (with
whom contractual confidentiality obligations have been concluded) via a secure
platform (E-Kickoff) for administrative transactions (e.g. affiliations, transfers,
dismissals, match sheets, member linking, …);
• If there is a legal obligation (e.g., to judicial authorities and police departments after
authorized request or warrant);
• The Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport (BAS) or the Flemish Sports Tribunal (VST)
in the event of a dispute;
• Publicly available data (e.g. match sheets) at Persgroep and Groupe Rossel;
• In case of need for our services (e.g. at the ticket sale) or in case of justified interest
(e.g. the organization of the Jeugdcup Het Nieuwsblad, Referee Social Fund), taking
into account an evaluation of your fundamental right of privacy;
• With your consent, we may share (pseudonymized) data with our digital media
providers (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat,
Google Ads...) for targeted communications and campaigns based on your
preferences;
• For a linkage using the RBFA tag indicating that the same person has an account
with both the RBFA and the relevant commercial partner (see clause 2.2);
• With your permission (selected privacy settings and consents), we will share your
data with our partners in the context of commercial actions.
With regard to the international transmission of personal data (e.g. FIFA or UEFA), we
protect your data in accordance with the level of protection required by European regulations.
5 HOW DO WE SECURE YOUR DATA?
The Federation makes every effort to protect your personal data and your privacy at all
times. With this in mind, we have implemented a policy of securing information and
standards in line with the international standard ISO27001-2. Various functions within the
organization ensure the respect of legislation and the security of your information, our
infrastructures and systems. We are constantly trying to implement new technical measures,
such as encryption, firewalls, access control with stringent password requirements, intruder
and anomaly detection, and physical security. Should an incident still occur, where your data
is impacted, you will be personally notified in the circumstances provided by law.
The number of collaborators with access to your data is limited and has been carefully
selected. These collaborators are able to access your personal information as long as they
need this information to carry out their tasks. Our employees are trained in such a way that
they process your data correctly. As part of new projects that may have an impact on your
privacy, a thorough analysis is also carried out to guarantee your rights, security and the
protection of your personal data.
Our websites sometimes contain links to third-party sites (social media, event organizers we
sponsor or other partners) whose terms of use do not fall within the scope of this privacy
policy. Read carefully their policy regarding the protection of your personal data. If we
actually share personal data with external parties, a treatment agreement is concluded. It
must obligatorily take enough (technical) measures so that the security of your data is
guaranteed as best as possible.
6 YOUR PREFERENCES
You have the option at any time to change your privacy settings. You can do this through the
profile settings of all of the Federation's platforms on which you are active.
Using your settings, you decide what personal information we can collect and for what
purposes we can use it. Where location-based functionality is available, you can also control
access to your device's location through your device settings and, where applicable, through
the privacy or notification settings of the relevant Federation application. Disabling location
access may mean that certain location-dependent features or communications are no longer
available to you. We will never publish statistics or transmit data to third parties for
commercial purposes without your permission. Should this still be the case, please contact
us immediately so that we can adapt your or our settings.
7 YOUR RIGHTS AND HOW TO EXERCISE THEM
7.1 RIGHT TO CONSULT, TRANSFER AND RECTIFY YOUR
DATA
The quality and accuracy of your personal data is very important to us. This is the reason
why you always have the right to consult your personal data which are in our possession.
You do this by sending a request to the DPO of the Federation or the Legal Department. You
will find the coordinates at the bottom of the page.
To exercise your right of access, and to prevent any inappropriate communication of your
personal data, you must submit proof of identity. We therefore ask you to attach a copy of the
face of your identity card to your application.
We will always review your request within 30 days of receiving the request.
In order to be complete, we inform you of the following: if we do not react to your request, if
we refuse it or if our answer does not meet your expectations, you always have the right to
contact the Authority of Data Protection, contact@apd-gba.be, which will intervene then
within the framework of its mission of conciliator.
7.2 RIGHT TO DELETE YOUR DATA
You have the right to delete incomplete, inaccurate, inappropriate or outdated personal data.
For this purpose, you can also apply to these departments. However, we reserve the right to
determine if your request is justified. Depending on your request, please also take into
account that we will no longer be able to offer you certain services. We must therefore
process certain personal data if you wish to participate in competitive football or want to act
as an intermediary. In addition, we must respect a few legal retention periods, which means
that we cannot respond to your cancellation request.
In order to keep your data up to date, we ask you to notify us of any changes, such as new
contact information. On our platforms, you will be able to update your data.
7.3 RIGHT OF OPPOSITION
7.3.1 Right to oppose data processing for direct marketing purposes
Without having to give the reason, you always have the right to oppose the use of your
personal data for direct marketing purposes. You can do this by contacting the services
below, changing your privacy settings, or unsubscribing from commercial mail.
7.3.2 Right of opposition to be displayed
Without having to give the reason, you always have the right to oppose the communication of
your data on one of our public applications, for example your name and your age on the
match sheets included in our RBFA mobile application. To this end, you must submit a
request for opposition to these services. In the composition of the team, your name and your
age will no longer be indicated and replaced by an 'X'.
8 HOW LONG ARE YOUR DATA KEPT?
The RBFA and its wings are committed not to store your data longer than necessary for our
services for the purpose for which the data is collected. However, retention periods may vary
depending on the purpose. For example, we make a clear distinction between coordinates,
sports data, medical data, disciplinary data or user behavior. We always respect the retention
periods stipulated in the federal regulations or communicated in the conditions of use of our
applications. Personal data will be anonymized or destroyed after the retention period has
expired. Where location information is processed for location-based communications, it will
not be retained for longer than necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, unless a
longer retention period is required or permitted by law or is necessary for another lawful
purpose.
9 HOW TO CONTACT US?
If you have any questions about this privacy statement or if you wish to exercise your privacy
rights, please contact us:
Royal Belgian Football Association
Rue de Bruxelles 480, 1480 Tubize T: +3224771248
E: privacy@rbfa.be
If you would like to contact our Data Protection Officer, please find the contact details below:
Mr. Cedric Brosens
Rue de Bruxelles 480, 1480 Tubize
E: cedric.brosens@rbfa.be
If you wish to contact the Authority of Data Protection, please find the contact details below:
Commission for the Protection of Privacy
Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussel / Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels
T: +32 (0)2 274 48 00
E: contact@apd-gba.be

10 CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT
We may from time to time adapt our privacy statement. We advise you to consult it regularly.
In the event of significant changes to our privacy statement, we will ask you to accept the
new version.