The wave of violence that engulfed Brussels on Sunday and Monday following a serious soccer match was spurred by racist hatred for Belgium’s multiethnic capital, town’s mayor stated.
Supporters of Membership Brugge, carrying black hoodies, rampaged on Sunday by Molenbeek — a Brussels neighborhood well-known for its massive migrant and predominantly Muslim inhabitants — smashing store home windows and assaulting individuals.
“They hate Brussels as a result of it’s a multicultural metropolis,” Brussels Mayor Philippe Shut instructed POLITICO on Tuesday.
“For them, the picture of Brussels is a hellhole,” he stated. “These hooligans don’t have any place in Brussels. They don’t seem to be welcome in my metropolis.”
Native police stated they’d arrested 63 individuals and labored “till late into the night time” to quell the dysfunction, with some Brussels locals preventing again. One Bruges fan was shot within the leg, the Brussels prosecutor’s workplace confirmed.
Authorities and soccer governing our bodies condemned the rioting, which continued on Monday night time with “revenge” assaults by Brussels youths round King Baudouin Stadium, at Brussels’ greatest practice station and within the heart of town, Brussels police chief Michel Goovaerts instructed native media. In accordance with the authorities, native rioters hijacked a pro-Palestinian protest on Monday to create dysfunction within the metropolis.
Goovaerts didn’t reply to POLITICO’s request for remark.
Belgian inside ministry spokesperson Olivier Schotte instructed POLITICO that Sunday’s soccer violence “was surprising and unacceptable,” and that authorities have been working to establish the perpetrators.
The Belgian Professional League stated it was “crystal clear that various hooligans used the cup ultimate as a pretext to commit organized crime in Brussels.”
Membership Brugge denounced “so-called supporters who ran riot within the streets of Brussels and across the stadium” in a press release Monday, and stated it could “be cooperating with the police as a way to establish these concerned.”
‘So indignant’
Against the law wave has plagued Brussels in latest months, with 11 shootings reported within the first six weeks of 2025 alone, leading to two deaths and several other accidents.
The surge in violence has reignited criticism of native authorities. Brussels has had no regional authorities since final June, with events locked in a political stalemate, and critics say the deadlock has hampered a unified response to town’s issues.
“How is it attainable that these hooligans, who’re very well-known by the police division and likewise by the soccer golf equipment, can have the tickets for these matches?” Shut requested. “And that is why I’m so indignant. It’s at all times the identical story.”
Shut argued that whereas violence between supporters of rival groups isn’t new, Membership Brugge was notably aggressive because it was motivated by “excessive right-wing” ideology.
“All people in Belgium is aware of this,” Shut stated.
Some victims of the violence in Molenbeek on Sunday night time additionally criticized the police for taking too lengthy to intervene. One individual, who was overwhelmed whereas attempting to guard his 73-year-old father when hooligans invaded their family-run DIY retailer, instructed Belgian broadcaster RTBF that legislation enforcement didn’t present up for 20 minutes.
Belgian Inside Minister Bernard Quintin stated final month he was finalizing a long-awaited plan to merge the capital’s six police zones right into a single, organized command in a bid to raised coordinate responses — and would current it this summer time.
“We are going to transfer shortly on the merger of police zones, with the primary implementation in Brussels,” his spokesperson Schotte instructed POLITICO. “The latest occasions have proven the pressing want for a single command and a sooner police response power when mandatory.”
Christophe Vandeviver, analysis professor of criminology at Ghent College, stated the hooligans have been troublemakers, no matter their alleged political ideology.
“These are teams that wish to riot. Whether or not they’re proper or left wing, they’re motivated by the truth that they wish to create chaos, create havoc in Brussels,” he stated.
“Anonymity and being in a big group makes individuals really feel invincible. It’s simple to be powerful in a gaggle,” he added, noting the propensity of hooligans to put on black clothes and scarves round their faces to evade authorities.
For these causes, he stated, it’s vital that the authorities establish rioters and that soccer golf equipment ban them from attending matches.
Brussels’ Mayor Shut was in complete settlement.
“Soccer groups and the soccer league must take very laborious sanctions in opposition to these teams of supporters,” he stated. “They know who they’re.”