A youth coach has been fired by a football club in Antwerp Province after he placed a racist player-recruitment post on Facebook. The coach said that the 7 outfield players and 2 goalkeepers that Nielse SV needs to strengthen the ranks of its U15 squad should be “white and not immigrants”.
Youth football coach sacked after “white’s only, no immigrants” post on social media
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The Flemish Football Association (Voetbal Vlaanderen) has passed on the incident to the federation’s prosecutor’s office. The coach alleges that he was only following the orders of the club chairman, who had asked him not to recruit “too many foreigners”.
This is what the coach wrote in his Facebook post
For the 2025/2026 season, Nielse is looking for 7 players and 2 goalkeepers (2011 / 2012) for our U15s. They should be an added value and show respect to the club and coach. For now, preferably white, no immigrants.
The Facebook post has since been removed and the club’s board since posted a message on its Facebook page stating that it doesn’t tolerate this kind of behaviour. "Almost half of the 150 youth players at this club are from an immigrant background”, the club’s chairman Bart De Troetsel said.
However, the sacked coach says that it was Mr De Troetsel himself that had asked to specifically look for players that don’t come from an immigrant background.
“After discussing the organisation of the youth teams for next season this morning, the chairman told me that I could look for some extra players myself, but there shouldn’t be too many immigrants among them. I don't think what I wrote is racist, but I shouldn't have put the immigrants thing in there. However, I was acting on chairman’s wishes".
Mr De Troetsel has not yet responsed to the sacked coach’s allegations.
Possible additional sanctions
Both the club and the sacked coach risk prosecution. Nand De Klerck of the Flemish Football Association told VRT News that "If you make statements of this nature, you have no place in football, and certainly not in youth football. We as a federation condemn this behaviour in the strongest of terms".
"This incident will be passed on to the federation’s prosecutor's office, which in turn can lodge a complaint with the national chamber for the fight against discrimination and racism. The latter can then impose a sanction, ranging from a suspension to a fine or alternative measures."
Voetbal Vlaanderen believes that the club did respond appropriately, "The club has acted properly. We hope they are able to find new coaches that take the right approach to youth footbaal soon", the federation said.