“Antwerp fans are always exploring the limits, and a minority are constantly pushing it.” | European League

Yesterday it was turbulent for a whole day in central Antwerp and around Bosuil, with the low point being the riots that broke out during the match against Frankfurt.

“Everyone expected a holiday, but it became a nightmare,” Peter Goris, head of sports at Gazet van Antwerpen and a follower of Antwerp for many years, tells De Wereld Today.

In the police innocently washing their hands, they did not see the riots coming. “But then someone has to explain to me how about 300 Frankfurt fans can spend the night in a supermarket car park and then go undisturbed on a war march to a café without being stopped by a police officer.”

“But it’s not that an unacceptable provocation justifies an unacceptable reaction. Throwing firecrackers at a player is a crime.”

Antwerp has had a bad reputation for a long time. “She has ardent supporters,” Goris says. “Sometimes they say raw people.” “They are proud even of being marginal, that’s how they sing.”

“The fans have always tested the limits of what is permissible. There is a minority that still crosses the border, and it is already the millennium that leaves its mark on the club in this way. It belongs to a big city, it is always present in the soul. Van Antwerp, but that does not mean that you cannot justify that “.

“In Belgium, they have this problem more or less under control, but I have the impression that the European scene is now a playground for riots. There is much less movement, and it is difficult to manage. After all, you cannot have a joint arrangement from Istanbul, for example. to arrange.”

It would also be a painful wake-up call for CEO and owner Paul Jessens. “They told me he’s very angry. He put a lot of money into the club and he’s going to get it back. It hurts.”