Anderlecht decides against joining new stadium project

Football club RSC Anderlecht has decided not to take part in the development of the new Eurostadium planned for the Heysel complex in northern Brussels. The club’s decision follows a similar decision by the football union. However, project developer Ghelamco said it would carry on.

“With what we know at present of how things stand with the Brussels Eurostadium, and following the submission of the environmental impact report and the applications for environmental and planning permits, the board of RSC Anderlecht carried out an evaluation,” the club said in a statement. “The club has communicated its serious concerns, and the decision that it is not in the interests of the club to take part in the project, to Ghelamco.”

The stadium was to be the new home for the national football team, but since they play a limited number of home matches in a year, the ground needed a full-time tenant. Now that both Anderlecht and the union have pulled out, critics describe the completion of the project in time for the European Championships in 2020 as “unattainable”.

Johan Van den Driessche, fraction leader of opposition party N-VA, says that rather than carrying on with the construction of a stadium nobody appears to want, the money should be used to renovate the existing King Baudouin stadium to create a modern arena for multiple sports.

Ghelamco claimed at the weekend that Anderlecht had not abandoned the project. “That cannot be, given the documents the club submitted during the public tender procedure, and in particular their signing of the initial accord,” the company said in a press release. “We have always behaved as a loyal partner, and will continue to do so. We have been given a task, and will do all we can to carry it out. We expect our partners to do the same.”

Photo courtesy Jaspers-Eyers Architects