The Belgian national football team has represented Belgium in association football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is supervised by the Royal Belgian Football Association, stands under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA. Most of their home games are played at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. The squad has been known as the Red Devils since 1906; its fan club is named "1895". Belgium has long-standing football rivalries with its Dutch and French counterparts, having played both teams nearly every year from 1905 to 1967. Periods of regular Belgian representation at the highest international level, from 1920 to 1938, and 1970 to 2002, have alternated with mostly unsuccessful qualification rounds. The national team played in three Olympic football tournaments, including the one in 1920, which they won. They achieved victories over four reigning world champions—West Germany, Brazil, Argentina and France—between 1954 and 2002. Belgium topped the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in November 2015. They are competing in the European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup, which will run until October 2017.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_national_football_team

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1745:

War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeated the Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian "Pragmatic Army" at the Battle of Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands in present-day Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fontenoy

1812:

Spencer Perceval became the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated when he was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Spencer_Perceval

1894:

In response to a 28 percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike in Illinois, bringing rail traffic west of Chicago to a halt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike

1985:

During an association football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City in Bradford, England, a flash fire consumed one side of the Valley Parade stadium, killing 56 attendees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_City_stadium_fire

1997:

Deep Blue became the first computer to win a match against a world chess champion, when it defeated Garry Kasparov in six games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer)

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

hold the ring: 1. (sports, theater, obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants; to keep the ring. 2. To be a spectator at a fight; (figuratively) to watch other people argue. 3. (Britain, idiomatic) To oversee a situation while attempting to remain uninvolved in it. 4. (sports) Of a prizefighter: to hold one's own during a fight; to continue winning a series of fights. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hold_the_ring

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.   --Jiddu Krishnamurti https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti