It could be an idea for a new TV show. After ‘the masked singer’ the ‘masked footballer’. The eleven Eupen players who had to take on Cercle Brugge in the East Cantons on Sunday turned their backs to the TV cameras before kick-off. It was their way of protesting against the corona policy of the Jupiler Pro League. At the same time, they also created a powerful image of Belgian football: not to be seen for the time being.
The board of directors of the Pro League is measuring the damage today. Two tricky files are on the table. On the one hand, the immediate failure in the Clean Hands case. With Club manager Vincent Mannaert and AA Gent manager Michel Louwagie, the league has two club leaders who want to bring the federal prosecutor’s office before the indictment chamber. The Pro League wonders whether and how they can continue to function within the organization for professional clubs. The fate of CEO Pierre François is also uncertain.
Louwagie is one of the longest-serving directors of the Belgian professional league. Mannaert resigned from the board in 2020, but only a week ago was given a mandate to negotiate a number of important files with politicians with the support of Anderlecht chairman Wouter Vandenhaute. There is a chance that Louwagie will have to resign and Mannaert will remain in the shadows. If it turns out later that they are innocent, or if they reach a settlement with the tax authorities, they can still enter the cockpit (again).
Michel Louwagie. — © BELGIAN
New corona rules
A second important point of discussion is the new corona rules of the Pro League. Only last Monday, the clubs reached an agreement to postpone matches under certain conditions: if seven players who perfect at least thirty percent of the playing minutes are positive, or if two goalkeepers from the A-team are positive.
A week later, the rules could be changed again. According to information that De Standaard could see, the management of the Pro League is preparing an adjustment to the goalkeeper rule. KV Mechelen has two infected goalkeepers, but one of them – Maxime Wenssens – is only 20. As a result, he was not charged by the calendar committee. Had Wenssens been a year older, postponement would have been possible.
KV Mechelen has lobbied intensively with his fellow club leaders in recent days to remove the age criterion. After all, clubs that give young people opportunities are punished, Malinwa argues. The clubs would now vote on a new proposal that allows a postponement if two goalkeepers are infected who have played x number of minutes, or if two goalkeepers are infected who have been on the bench for x number of games.
Inquiries show that many clubs have been won over by the new proposal. Racing Genk is already a proponent. The advanced match Genk-KV Mechelen is scheduled for Wednesday. There is a real chance that the match will be postponed.
KV Mechelen did not show up for the game against OHL. — © BELGIAN
No forfeit defeat at OHL?
The discussion becomes more precarious when it comes to timing. According to some sources, KV Mechelen would like to introduce the rule retroactively. This would also allow the game to be replayed on OHL.
KV Mechelen had taken the radical decision on Friday not to go to Leuvense Dreef. With Gaëtan Coucke, Jordi Vanlerberghe, Vinicius Souza and Nikola Storm, Malinwa is missing four important players. The coaching staff was also infected, so there was no match preparation. KV then sent his cat to Den Dreef. Not to give a lump sum, but to make a statement. “The health of our players is paramount,” it said in a statement.
What KV Mechelen did not say was that it also bears a great deal of responsibility for the corona cluster itself. It took the risky decision to go on a winter internship on January 2 without testing everyone. Such a test round was required by the Pro League, but KV Mechelen argued that it was too short a day to perform them and obtained an exception. A complete miscalculation, as it turned out later.
On Saturday afternoon at Den Dreef, another piece of bad Belgian football theater was performed. Oud-Heverlee Leuven, the TV cameras of rights holder Eleven and the referees – everyone was contractually obliged to turn out for the match. Out of abject poverty, OHL A played against OHL B. The camera crews protested, the costs are estimated at several tens of thousands of euros.
Referee Nathan Verboomen noted the absence of Malinwa, but whether that also leads to a forfait defeat will have to be revealed today during the meeting of the Pro League. The masks will go on from 10 a.m. during a meeting via Zoom. Who will be voted out is impossible to predict. The course of Belgian professional football these days is shrouded in the same mists that led to the cancellation of the Seraing-Union match on Saturday.
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