The shame of Belgium - anno 2015

Yesterday the clasico between Standard and Anderlecht was played. Once again, it was nothing to be proud of. Intimidation, disgusting banners, fireworks, riots and a bad referee. That's the short summary.


The game had not yet started or the Standard fans unrolled a huge banner figuring an executor holding the head of a decapitated Defour. It's already outrageous that a banner like this was allowed by Standard. With terrorism rolling over Europe, Islamtic State decapitating people and many children watching the game, the choice to allow this was not very intelligent.

The hostile atmosphere was immediately set. After just a few minutes, goalkeeper Proto was already hit by flying ice cubes and lighters, thrown by the - again - misbehaving Standard fans/hooligans. The whole game long, Defour was insulted and despised. The referee allowed it.

In the second half, things took a turn for the worst. Referee Boucaut gave Defour a second yellow when the Anderlecht midfielder kicked the ball out of play to allow medical care for Standard player Milec, who had been lying on the pitch for minutes already. True, Defour kicked the ball rather hard out of play. But after being tormented during the whole match, the referee should have shown at least some sympathy; especially in a hostile atmosphere.

A whole situation rapidly escalated now. The Anderlecht fans broke down their seats and threw them on the field. Defour refused the leave the field and had to be brought in by assistent coach Van Handenhoven. Vanden Borre, on the bench, even got yellow for protest.

Being down to ten and still trying to recover from the mental blow after the idiotic red card, the Mauves were unable to keep Standard from scoring. Once again, a match between Standard and Anderlecht turned into a pathetic spectacle referee Boucaut as a leader. But that wasn't enough though. Boucaut decided to demonstrate his absolute incompetence once more: Ciman made a harsh tackle on Cyriac. Boucaut grabbed the yellow card, then realised Ciman was already booked, so he quickly put away the card again... Standard remained with eleven and managed to score again.

After the match, the Anderlecht busses were stopped by Standard hooligans blocking their path. The police had to intervene to clear the way.

The Belgian Football Organisation already announced they will take action against the event. But like always, not much will happen we assume. Two years ago, Standard fans shot fireworks to the Anderlecht players and remained unpunished. This year, Standard - Zulte Waregem had to be stopped due to misbehaving Standard fans. Again, the club escaped unpunished. All this just encouraged them more to promote violence, manipulation and unsporting behaviour...

De "befaamde" tifo van Standard pic.twitter.com/s5SPLQf3Le

— Anderlecht-online.be (@rsca_online_nl) 25 januari 2015