Vincent Kompany urges unity as Belgium grieves

‘We must reject hate and its preachers,’ says the Manchester City captain, as doubts surround next week’s friendly between Belgium and Portugal...

So much for Belgium coach Marc Wilmots worrying about the football.

Earlier this week, Wilmots’s biggest headache concerned the state of captain Vincent Kompany’s calf and Eden Hazard’s sudden loss of form at Chelsea.

That was before yesterday, when a series of explosions ripped through the departure hall of a Brussels airport and a metro station, killing at least 34 people and leaving many more injured.

At times like this, football, quite rightly, takes a back seat. Belgium cancelled its afternoon training session at the King Baudouin Stadium ahead of Tuesday’s friendly game against Portugal. The Belgian FA will meet with its Portuguese equivalent, and security forces, to assess whether the game will go ahead.

Events across the Belgian capital were cancelled.

Anderlecht had a signing session with some players scheduled in a shopping mall that was postponed; the Dwars-to-Vlaanderen cycling race is expected to take place today, but a three-day race in Brussels next week might be cancelled.

Colleges and universities cancelled classes, two malls were closed and a building in Woluwe was evacuated after a suspicious package was found in the car park.

The European Commission’s HQ, the Berlaymont building, was evacuated and last night’s concert at the popular Ancienne Belgique was cancelled.

The Audi plant halted production, the Tihange nuclear power station was evacuated and two IKEA stores were shut.

One of the first to react to the shocking news was Kompany. “Horrified and revolted,” he tweeted. “Innocent people paying the price again. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I wish for Brussels to act with dignity. We are all hurting, yet we must reject hate and its preachers. As hard as it may be.”

Kompany would feel this more than most. He grew up in the city, founded a local club there called BX Brussels, and embodies the pluralist and multicultural strength of the country, so much so that Belgium columnist Hugo Morgan once wrote of him: “He is the country’s best foreign minister.”

Wilmots, one of the first coaches to communicate with fans via Twitter, added: “Let’s be strong together! My thoughts are with the families of the deceased and wounded.” Almost every other player in the squad tweeted words of condolence as well.

Terrorism is one of the new challenges for the modern-day international football coach. Last week, Holland boss Danny Blind spoke of the unknown threat that led to his team’s friendly with Germany being cancelled last November.

“It was worrying, but the German authorities were fantastic and kept us informed and put us at ease,” he said. After the atrocities in France last November, Belgium’s last scheduled friendly, against Spain, was also cancelled.

“I expect the game against Portugal to be cancelled, because they need every policeman in Belgium to secure the environment,” said Sven Claes, a Belgian journalist who, like many of his colleagues, was in Brussels airport a week ago to the day, off to Madrid to watch PSV Eindhoven’s Champions League second-leg tie.

Just a few hours after the explosions, the French government held a press conference, with Sports Minister Patrick Kanner, Home Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, and representatives from each of the host cities, putting on a united front.

“The events of Brussels remind us of the necessity of an extremely high level of security to make sure Euro 2016 runs smoothly,” said Cazeneuve.

“The tournament must be a festive and sporting event, but also we have to make sure that everyone is safe and we are, of course, thinking about security for teams and fans who will be attending matches.

“There will be extra security and controls around fan zones, baggage will be forbidden in those areas and there will be extra video protection.”

The government pledged an addition €2m in funding to invest in surveillance around fan zones. The organising committee will be putting on worst-case scenario planning days between now and the opening day of the tournament. “We want Euro 2016 to be a party for everybody and the way to make that happen is to make everyone feel safe in the knowledge that we have taken care of security.”

The Belgian FA summed up the mood of the nation when it tweeted:

“Football is not important today – our thoughts are with the victims”.

The governing body arranged only one friendly for this month and, if it is cancelled, then Belgium will be short of match-practice before the tournament, where they face Ireland in their second match, on June 18.

It does have games planned against Switzerland, Finland, and Norway in late-May and early-June, by which time Wilmots will have announced his squad. The likes of Bjorn Engels, the Club Brugge defender called up to replace Kompany, could miss his chance to impress next week, but with the country in mourning, concern about injured players and ideal line-ups is the furthest thing from the thoughts of one of the pre-tournament favourites for Euro 2016.