Belgium Football Violence: Anderlecht and Standard Liège Update

Dec 8, 2023 at 11:06 AM Update: 30 minutes ago

Jan Vertonghen is afraid that things are going the same way in Belgium as in the Netherlands. The experienced defender of Anderlecht was seen screaming in the stands on Thursday evening during the cup match against Standard Liège. “Too bad this is part of it.”

These were unsavory scenes in Lotto Park. Fire arrows whizzed back and forth and chairs flew around. The hard supporters of arch-rivals Anderlecht and Standard Liège showed their worst side. The cup match had to be stopped for ten minutes.

“It’s a shame that this is part of it,” sighed the 36-year-old Vertonghen afterwards Sporza. “I’m not going to say anything about the Standard fans, because our supporters also misbehaved in Liège once.”

The former Ajax player fears that measures will be taken. “Hopefully we can get to a situation where this no longer happens. Otherwise we will end up like in the Netherlands, where you play matches without away fans. That doesn’t make anyone happy.”

Vertonghen was referring to the matches between Ajax and Feyenoord. The Classics have been played without away fans since 2009, because things had gone wrong a number of times in the previous years.

Things went terribly wrong in the stands of Lotto Park. Photo: Pro Shots

Standard Liège is taking measures itself

“I hope people realize that football is more beautiful with away fans instead of just home fans,” Vertonghen continued. “You want that dynamic between home and away supporters. Two ardent groups of supporters, but in the right way.”

The question is whether government intervention will be necessary. Fate would have it that Anderlecht and Standard Liège will face each other again in Lotto Park on Sunday, this time in the context of the competition. And the away club will not let it get to that point again.

“Standard has taken preventive measures and decided not to allow supporters to travel to Anderlecht on Sunday,” the Liège top club reported on Friday. “In the coming days we will study the facts in detail before making any further decisions.”

Anderlecht won 2-0 on Thursday and thus qualified for the quarter-finals of the cup tournament, which is known in Belgium as the Croky Cup. The competition match between the two top clubs will kick off on Sunday at 6:30 PM.

Image: Pro Shots

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2023-12-08 10:06:43
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