The Belgian Pro League is dealing with an unnecessary public relations disaster over a fine handed out to Union Saint-Gilloise.
On October 27 before a home match against Cercle Brugge, USC wanted to remember a famous supporter named Samir Smeyers who died aged 34.
A minute’s silence was held and then fans lit up around 40 flares and held them aloft.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has a zero-tolerance policy towards pyrotechnics and handed Union a €3500 fine.
During a hearing with the Disciplinary Committee for Professional Football in Belgium, Union requested that the fine was overturned, but the Committee instead upheld it, leading to a torrent of bad headlines in the country.
Discussing the campaign to outlaw pyrotechnics a week earlier, Minister Annelies Verlinden said: “A burn like that, facial or hearing damage, you don’t want to experience that.
“That is intolerable. Every victim that falls because of poor supervision of those pyrotechnics is of course one too many. Those victims can be anyone. Not only those who set them off but also those who are hit.
“Neighbours who suffer hearing damage, tinnitus. Football can also be a party without running that risk. Those are lifelong dramas. I visited the burns foundation. It is terrible.”
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