The vision is almost surreal: his narrow office (with a direct view of the Stade Mariën pitch) is housed in one of the temporary containers that serve as the secretariat of the leading club of the D1A. At the Ticketing service, we are busy managing the return of the public (but only the subscribers) as well as possible when Anderlecht arrives on Sunday. The Sports Director Chris O’Loughlin, who shares the same room, briefly interrupts the interview: he has forgotten his briefcase. Lower, we hear the laughter of some players leaving the locker room after training on D-2 of the match.
” This stadium, in this magnificent Duden Park, is really the DNA of the Union “begins Philippe Bormans, the young (34 years old) General Manager of the yellow and blue club. ” Whatever happens, the heart of this club will remain here: when we have our new stadium, we will play young people here or even first team friendlies. We invested here: we redid the pitch, we installed the heating and we renovated the stands. And soon, we will install LED lighting and we will restore this magnificent facade. When I left Saint-Trond (NDLA: where Bormans held the same position for 7 years, under the presidency of Roland Duchatelet), I was a little fed up with football and I wanted to change medium. But I listened to the project of the buyers of the Union… and I was immediately seduced. There is a real desire to build little by little and not to worry, despite the current results. We don’t want to compete with Bruges or Anderlecht in terms of budget: we want to remain a friendly and family club… but one that regularly annoys the grown-ups! “
