Even though a lot of their results have been good over the past few years, the Belgium national team have had their fair share of problems with their fans.
Booed following their poor performances at the 2016 Euros, they appeared to be on reasonably good terms recently, yet following their draws with both Greece and Russia during the latest international break, another controversy has appeared.
Greeted by 35 Belgium fans at Sochi as well as traditional Russian folk music group, Tottenham’s Mousa Dembélé and the Belgium team failed to go over to the fans or pay any attention to the local welcome.
So much, in fact, that he has had to address the situation, explaining what he was doing, which was described by fans as ‘arrogant behaviour’ in a letter addressed to their national team.
The Tottenham star told DH: “I admit that I was on the phone. My parents always ask me to call them after landing, to reassure them that everything went well. That’s what I was doing. It’s the first time that a fanfare greeted us at an airport. We were a bit surprised.
“Do we have to smile when that happens? Some do, others not. I don’t think we need to be punished for that, but I know the media have to talk about something (laughs).”
The reasonable thing to do here would probably have been to realise their behaviour was a bit off, especially if fans greeting them is such a rare occurrence.
At least acknowledge the effort fans who have paid hundreds of pounds to see you put into their passion.
Don’t try and brush it off by blaming the media.
