To many football fans football is their entire life, but in future fans of Brussels’ football club Anderlecht can also honour their favourite team in death by holding their funeral at the club's stadium. The club is making several rooms at the stadium available both for funerals and funeral receptions. "For diehard supporters, a funeral at the stadium is the most personal show of respect you can imagine," the club says.
Football stadium funerals are already possible at many clubs: Racing Genk, KAA Gent and OH Leuven, but now RSC Anderlecht is also offering this opportunity.
Fubo, the company that arranges funeral venues, says the funerals are a response to the emotional ties that many football supporters have to their club. "We are thinking of diehard supporters, who want a personal funeral in a personal location," says Fubo's Sascha Goldstein. "And for an Anderlecht supporter, a funeral at the stadium is the most personal thing you can imagine."
The club is making several venues available, "both large-scale events at the stadium and intimate events in a smaller hall", for both funerals and receptions.
So, is there much demand for funerals at a football stadium? "At the clubs where it is already possible, we hear a lot of questions about the options," Goldstein notes. "I think a lot of people would like a funeral like that, but just don't consider it, because they don't know that the option is there and that is something we want to change”.