Marc Van Ranst and later also Antwerp’s governor Cathy Berx, among others, expressed their dissatisfaction with the wild party scenes on the Heysel after the cup final.
“I don’t understand that at all,” says Peter Vandenbempt in Extra Time. “Everyone is tested, including the staff. They can train together and they play football for 90 minutes against each other, with the saliva and sweat flying around. But after the match they suddenly have to keep their distance.”
“They asked us to keep the cuddly toys short and where possible keep their distance,” said Hernan Losada, who joined his team Beerschot a day after the cup final. “We tried that, but it is difficult when it comes to emotions and discharge.”
“Football is just too much targeted in this regard,” says Vandenbempt. “Of course it has a bad image and some people look at it and do not understand why football is allowed to do more than others. But few see football as an important economic branch. The Pro League does everything it can to organize football, just like the catering or the travel sector does this. “
“I was on both matches last weekend and I have to give kudos to the Pro League and Football Association for the super professional way they were organized. And yet they are under heavy pressure.” If you are not careful, there will be no football next weekend “I find that very unfortunate.”
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There is not only the situation during and after the matches, but for Antwerp and Beerschot there is also a problem with the training. These are prohibited in the province of Antwerp for contact sports.
“It is not possible that 1 team can train and another cannot,” says Antwerp coach Ivan Leko. “Then you can’t play football.”
“We have been unable to train normally since Thursday, just some tactics and such. But training without contact is difficult. If we want to play on Saturday, we have to be able to train normally. Every point will also be important in this competition, because you never know how long this season will last with the corona virus. “
“We trained once in Tubize and twice in our own stadium in 2 bubbles and without contact,” says Hernan Losada. “Only you can’t train like that. So there is an urgent need for a solution.”
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