Belgian police guard a street in Brussels
Belgium called off yesterday’s soccer match against Spain less than 24 hours before kickoff after the government raised the security threat level amid an investigation related to the Paris attacks.
The Belgian football federation said the decision was taken late Monday after the government recommended that the game not be played.
“After consulting with the relevant bodies and the Spanish national team, the (Belgian FA) decided to cancel the match,” the federation said in a statement. “Right at the end of the evening, the (federation) was contacted by the government which recommended that the Belgium-Spain match should not go ahead tomorrow night.
“It is in the context of a new elevated terrorist alert and the current pursuit of a suspect.”
France has identified a Belgian man as the mastermind of the Paris attacks that killed 129 people on Friday. His current whereabouts are unknown. A major police operation took place in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek on Monday, although it failed to yield any arrests related to the attacks.
The Ministry of the Interior’s Crisis Center had raised the threat level earlier Monday, recommending the cancellation of the match on its website.
“We deeply regret that such a friendly match between two motivated teams had to be cancelled so late and we understand the disappointment of numerous fans,” the federation statement added. “However, taking into account these exceptional circumstances, we couldn’t take any risk in the matter of the security of our players and supporters.”
France played England at Wembley Stadium in London today (Macau time) after the countries decided to go ahead with that game. (The match wasn’t finished by press time.)
The game in Brussels was set to pit the No. 1-ranked team in the world — Belgium — against the two-time defending European champion Spain in a warm-up match ahead of next year’s Euro 2016 tournament.
Before the cancellation, the Spain players had said they weren’t worried about the security situation.
“If we’re going it’s because it’s safe, we’re calm,” Spain defender Marc Bartra said.
Belgium is also set to host the Davis Cup final against Britain in Ghent later this month. AP
Del Bosque: Spanish players wanted to play friendly
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque says his players were keen to play the friendly against Belgium and were disappointed with its cancellation because of security concerns.
Belgium called off the game after the local government raised the security threat level amid an investigation related to last week’s Paris attacks.
Del Bosque said the players were “calm and wanted to play,” but understood the reasons for the cancellation. He said nobody involved in the match liked it, but nothing could be done because “it was a matter of security.”
There were high expectations for the friendly, which featured FIFA’s top-ranked team — Belgium — and two-time defending European champion, Spain.
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