October 24 – Anderlecht chairman Wouter Vandenhaute has called for a culture change at the club after fan disorder in the league match against Standard Liege. He has also fired coach Felice Mazzu as the crisis deepened at the club.
On Sunday Anderlecht supporters disrupted a league game away to Standard Liege, eventually leading to the postponement of the match. It was a new low for Anderlecht. On Monday Robin Veldman was appointed as interim manager to replace Mazzu.
“We have a very big problem in Belgian football,” said Anderlecht president Vandenhaute at a news conference.
“I was a sports journalist at the time of the Heysel drama and I think Michel Verschueren is turning in his grave today. He‘d stand between the fans, but today you can’t do that anymore (…) Our big clubs are much better organised than they were then, but the hooligans are also much better organised than the police, they are much further ahead than the police and we have to (catch-up). We are now sitting together with the government to see how we can tackle this. We cannot do this alone.”
Anderlecht will be fined at least €50,000 for the pyrotechnics fans threw on to the pitch. The club is also facing the prospect of having to play a number of home matches behind closed doors. Recently, UEFA slapped Anderlecht with a €50,000 euro fine for fan disorder away at West Ham United in the Europa League.
In 2017, businessman Marc Coucke acquired the club for €74 million. Endless boardroom shuffles and colossal debts aside, Vincent Kompany returned to Anderlecht as player-coach and then as head coach, on a salary of €6 million, but Kompany largely failed to get Anderlecht back on track and he departed for English Championship side, Burnley.
On the back of success with Union St Gilloise, Mazzu took charge of Anderlecht, but following eight defeats in 14 league matches, he was shown the door.
“The challenge now is to realize a total culture change,” said Vandenhaute.
“The frustration with the fans, that the players do not wet their jerseys enough… Anderlecht has always been a team of stars, Anderlecht could always afford more than the rest, but those times are gone and will not come back.”
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