Marc Mortier

Musicians who have performed at Flanders Expo include Tina Turner (12 times), Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Prince, Elton John, Britney Spears, Paul McCartney, Joe Cocker, Whitney Houston, Barry White, U2, Nick Kamen, Eros Ramazzotti, Bon Jovi, Metallica and AC/DC.

After the degradation in 1988, Mortier consulted the Prime Minister of Belgium, Wilfried Martens, in order to establish an organisation named Foot Invest, to get the team back on track.

Marc Mortier gathered at that time more than 50 million Belgian francs (1.25 million euros) in sponsoring in a couple of months and introduced VDK Spaarbank as the main sponsor.

Mortier also was a member of the Board of 'Voetbalmagazine' (the Belgian national soccer magazine), 'Flanders Sports Arena, 'King Baudouin Foundation', 'The International Year Exposition of Flanders', 'The Festival of Flanders', and the Rotary Club (who honoured him individually with a Paul Harris Fellow One Star).

He was 55, and was survived by his wife, Sylva Van der Stricht, and his three children, Caroline, Frederik and Bernard Mortier.