Despite the international plaudits why is Belgian football struggling to get its house in order?
The quality of Belgium’s players has never been higher but the game itself needs a rescue plan.
When does an international friendly turn into a training session? It is common enough during a game, and usual at half-time or shortly afterwards, but Belgium manager Roberto Martinez made no attempt to disguise his aims when he named his squad for tomorrow’s match in Dublin and the game against Burkina Faso next week.
Nearly all the big names are missing, from Thibaut Courtois in goal to Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku in attack. The familiar characters are mostly journeymen such as Divock Origi and Christian Benteke and one or two who never quite made it such as Michy Batshuayi.
In fairness Ireland have also chosen to experiment, and Belgium still have dangermen Youri Tielemans and Thorgan Hazard in the side, as well as the youngster Jeremy Doku.
Tielemans has often been the best player in an erratic Leicester team, a tenacious and versatile midfielder who can dominate games, as he showed in a tremendous all-round display against Manchester United last October. He also has a powerful shot from distance. He was only just denied by David De Gea in that match at Old Trafford and scored a fantastic goal against Chelsea to win last season’s FA Cup final.
Thorgan Hazard has long been in the shadow of his older brother but arguably is now a bigger threat since Eden’s sad decline following his move to Real Madrid. It took him a while to make his mark and after another up and down year at Borussia Dortmund he still has something to prove. It may be that he is most effective in a counter-attacking role, although he does have the intelligence to find space against a packed defence.
Doku is the same age as Thorgan was when he made his debut for Belgium back in 2013. In his second season at Rennes since his move from Anderlecht he is one of five players in this squad who are based in France. Another tricky winger, Doku’s speed off the mark and clever dribbling have led to comparisons with Jadon Sancho. Like Sancho he has the talent and pace to deceive opposing defenders but there are questions about his decision-making when he receives the ball.
Behind Hazard and Doku in the pecking order is another winger - Dante Vanzeir - one of the small home-based contingent in this squad. As ever the best young talent has been moving abroad. That’s to be expected, even at the best of times, but it is even less of a surprise given all the uncertainties and controversies that beset the domestic league.
For years the dubious accolade of Team of the Future belonged to Spain, but Belgium have taken on that mantle since 2016, and especially over the last two European championships and the 2018 World Cup. In fairness they have a much better international record than most small countries - fourth place in the 1986 World Cup, third in 2018 - but the Belgians like the Dutch have suffered from a weak domestic set-up.
This is one reason behind the historic vote by Belgian clubs 12 months ago for a merger between the Jupiler League and the Dutch Eredivisie. The proposed new BeNeLiga might start in 2025, with 10 Dutch clubs and 8 from Belgian, although the Dutch clubs have yet to agree to the new set up and have always been the more reluctant partners. Marco Van Basten pushed the idea in 2006 and lost the argument, then Michel Platini weighed in with a different plan three years later, which was once again rejected.
This is the nearest the two countries have come to a joint league - in men’s football at least. The women’s game tried a merger in 2012, but the two leagues separated after three seasons because of financial difficulties.
As in the past a major obstacle is that the leading Dutch clubs - Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV - are doubtful about the benefits, although a joint league would provide more financial clout. Ajax remains a centre of excellence with genuine European clout. The other two are no longer the major contenders they once were, but still have European credentials. Why should they bail out their neighbours?
The other little difficulty with a merger is the continuing turmoil in Belgian domestic football following the corruption scandal that first broke over three years ago.
Back in October 2018 Belgian police raided 44 addresses in a nationwide investigation into alleged corruption and match-fixing that also implicated individuals in France, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia. In January of this year court summonses were issued for 57 top administrators, referees and coaches. Operation Zero, or Operation Clean Hands as it is known, in an eerie echo of the Mani Pulite political scandal in Italy in the 1990s, is the most far-reaching investigation in Belgian football history and has involved allegations about the FA and national team selection as well as top-flight clubs.
As always these allegations are about past events and the chief prosecution witness, Dejan Veljkovic, a Serbian football agent with a dubious reputation, is himself a suspect who is collaborating with the prosecutor, after a plea deal involving a five-year suspended prison sentence.
So there has to be some doubt whether all the remaining charges of money laundering and fraud can be made to stick. But they reflect a long-term weakness in Belgium football, which has been through a series of minor scandals, mostly in the lower leagues, dating back to the 1960s, punctuated by major affairs such as the Anderlecht-Nottingham Forest match-fixing case and a 2005 betting scandal, after which the federal police set up its sports fraud unit.
The problem for Belgian football is that its long-term financial weakness, partly due to lax management controls, has been exacerbated by the Covid crisis. Last year the country’s 26 professional clubs suffered a record €139 million loss. Anderlecht has been particularly hard-hit, with a €65 million loss over two seasons.
The quality of Belgium’s players has never been higher but the game itself needs a rescue plan.
