Stricter penalties for violence against football stewards

In concrete terms, the minimum penalty for inciting violence against aid workers and stewards in the so-called ‘football law’ will soon amount to an administrative fine of 1,000 euros and a stadium ban of two years. The maximum penalties remain unchanged: it concerns an administrative fine of 5,000 euros and a stadium ban of five years. Franky Demon’s bill was unanimously approved on Wednesday in the House of Representatives Committee on the Interior, although the PVDA faction abstained.

The harsher sentences will come in the context of the stricter approach to hooliganism, smoke bombs and Bengal fire that Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) has announced. The reasoning is that because stewards are responsible for the control at the entrance to the stadium, they are extra vulnerable to violence. The same applies to emergency personnel, who maintain safety in and around the stadium and intervene if necessary. “Stewards and first responders have a tough, often thankless job,” says Demon. “In this task they deserve to be optimally protected.”

According to the CD&V Member of Parliament, violence against football stewards and aid workers in stadiums is now punished at the same level as illegally entering a football field.