Politics – the greatest danger to domestic and national football in Belgium

By Tom Simmonds.

First met second in Belgium on Sunday as RSC Anderlecht’s bitter rivals Club Bruges travelled along the E40 to the Stade Constant van den Stock. The two clubs, historic aristocrats of the European game, both contested and, in Anderlecht’s case, won major European finals in the 1970s and 80s.

They have had to be content with battling for domestic supremacy in football’s modern era. But does Belgium’s political backdrop mean occasions like Sunday’s, and Belgium’s national team itself, are endangered species?

While the Anderlecht-Bruges rivalry is more born of the success of both teams than regional politics (far more Flemish was spoken by the Anderlecht fans than we expected), it is also seen by some as a proxy for a fracture running through daily life in Belgium. Anderlecht are the biggest Francophone club in Belgium (despite the city of Brussels actually being located in Flanders), and their ‘Royal’ moniker suggests to conspiracy theorists that they enjoy the patronage of those upholding Belgium’s status quo. Bruges is their counterpart in the Dutch-speaking Flanders region, Belgium’s agricultural and economic powerhouse, which contains two-thirds of Belgium’s population.

Politically, this schism has threatened to boil over in recent years, most recently in July when Belgium’s two biggest parties, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and the Francophone Christian Democrats, could not compromise on the formation of a government. This situation, which ended with a government being sworn in on 11 October, was at least an improvement on the protracted 2010 negotiations, when it took parties 18 months to form a coalition.

As for the game itself, we got a high-octane, keenly contested derby in filthy conditions, thoroughly English in its style. Anderlecht struggled with Bruges’ early game plan to congest the midfield and crowd Steven Defour out, and fell behind when Victor Vazquez, a product of Barcelona’s La Maia academy, sent a free kick from the right, which eluded everybody in the box, swirling into the net.

Anderlecht were fortunate to be level at the break via Dennis Praet’s left foot shot off the post. The start of the second half saw the hosts attempt a more expansive style of play, which saw them take the lead in the 56th minute. Olivier Deschacht’s goal was not a thing of beauty coming from a goalmouth scramble reminiscent of Sunday football of more humble standing.

When Defour limped out of proceedings shortly afterwards, Anderlecht’s midfield looked ragged and, once Bruges’ Australian keeper Matt Ryan had denied Sacha Kljestan and Ibrahima Conte, the momentum swung irretrievably Bruges’ way. They won a stonewall penalty five minutes from time, which skipper Timmy Simons missed by pea-rolling the ball down the centre, the shot catching Sergio Proto’s trailing foot. Anderlecht did not heed the warning signs and when Vazquez came up with a carbon copy of his first free kick to equalise, it was enough to return the Bears to top spot.

A striking aspect of this game was the way its personnel gave away the diminished standing of both of these clubs, and the Belgian league, in the modern European club game. While Belgium’s national side is resurgent, only two of the players on the pitch on Sunday, Defour and Anthony van den Borre, were in Belgium’s 2014 World Cup squad which reached the quarter finals despite never finding top gear. That so many of Belgium’s players moved to play in Europe’s top leagues so early in their careers (and that almost none of England’s do) was mentioned as a key factor in the Red Devils’ success and England’s comparative failure in Brazil.

In an age where club football’s supremacy over the international game is so absolute, Belgium getting things the other way around is an eccentricity that bucks the prevailing trend. Whether the country can hold itself together for long enough for Vlanderens and Walloons to enjoy the full fruits of this together is the wider question which footballers alone will probably not be able to provide the answer to.

Euro-watchers: Do you think that the potential exists at Anderlecht and/or Bruges for them to return to something like their glory days? What would the Flanders and Wallonia ‘national’ sides look like if they were picked now?

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