While Belgium were knocked out of this year’s World Cup after only managing a goalless draw against Croatia, it was a very different story for Morocco. The Moroccan team’s victory against Canada in their match on Thursday afternoon means that they finish top of their group with 7 points.
In both Brussels and Antwerp many hundreds of Moroccan football fans took to the streets to celebrate their team’s success. Unlike Sunday when violence flared in both Brussels and Antwerp, Thursday evening’s celebrations passed largely without incident. This was due at least in part to members of the sizeable Moroccan communities in both cities stepping up and acting as unofficial stewards to ensure that things passed peacefully. In both Antwerp and Brussels adult men of Moroccan descent formed human chains around the hundreds of youths that had taken to the streets.
VRT News’ reporter Jens Franssen described this as the “image of the evening”.
"Hundreds of youths had gathered near to Brussels South Station, the atmosphere was elated, but became a little grim. Just as the police were about to intervene you saw a large number of young people and adults form a human chain to ensure that everything passed peacefully and prevent trouble from reoccurring. This worked. The atmosphere remained uneasy and a large police presence remained, but eventually peace was restored”.
VRT News’ reporter Yves Borms says that on the Turhoutsebaan in the Antwerp district of Borgerhout although the atmosphere was at times tense there were no major incidents. Here too older members of the Moroccan community stepped up to ensure that there was no repeat of the violence and vandalism that occurred after Sunday’s Belgium – Morocco game.
“It is a celebration and a lot of older people from the area are trying to keep the youngsters calm and this is working well”.
Prevent things from escalating
Like in Brussels, in Antwerp a human chain was used to ensure that the celebrations didn’t degenerate into violence. The Antwerp Police Spokesman Willem Migom told VRT News that "We would like to thank the youth workers and community leaders that in consultation with the police spoke to the young people as much as possible to ensure that things didn’t escalate. In one instance this produced a remarkable scene on the Astridplein, where a human chain was formed to prevent a group of youths from confronting the police”.