By Samindra Kunti
December 6 – Belgian topflight club Standard Liege wants to ban their supporters from travelling to away matches after their match with Charleroi was abandoned due to crowd trouble.
Last Sunday, the Liege-based club played away to Charleroi, local rivals in a match dubbed the Walloon derby. There was a capacity crowd just short of 15,000 inside the Stade du Pays de Charleroi.
The match was abandoned after fans repeatedly set off fireworks and threw coins, bottles and other objects on to the pitch. Standard Liege were winning 3-1 away from home when referee Serge Guminienny ended the match in the 81st minute. Guminienny had already halted the match twice.
Charleroi are sixth in the 16-team Belgian top tier, four points behind leaders Zulte Waregem. Standard Liege are seventh in the table. League authorities will decide whether the result stands or the match will be replayed.
In light of these incidents Standard have decided to no longer sell tickets for away matches to their own fans until the end of the regular season in March.
“Standard Liege therefore is spontaneously taking a measure without precedent in the history of Belgian football,” the club said in a statement, adding that they had had no problems at home for over two years.
“Football must remain a party, a communion and not a masquerade of bad taste orchestrated by some unthinking, unconscious or frustrated forces who simply do not deserve a place in stadium,” Charleroi said in a statement.
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