Politics

Dutch deputy leader slams Moroccan football fans after riots

Published

2 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius on Friday lambasted Moroccan football fans who clashed with police across the Netherlands following their team’s World Cup defeat to France.

“One by one, countries are knocked out. That’s what a football tournament is all about. We’re disappointed, but we move on with our lives. Except for these ‘supporters.’ Whether they win or lose, they act like madmen,” the leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) wrote on X.

“Don’t you feel ashamed that this is how the world sees you?” Yeşilgöz asked.

Dutch media reported several incidents after Moroccan fans took to the streets in multiple cities Thursday night, following their team’s 2-0 loss to France in the World Cup quarterfinal.

Fans threw glass bottles at the police, prompting anti-riot officers to disperse crowds, according to the daily newspaper De Telegraaf.

In Rotterdam, police were pelted with eggs, while in Amsterdam rioters reportedly fired fireworks at law enforcement and behaved aggressively toward journalists.

Yeşilgöz is known for her tough stance on migration. “There are too many people coming into our country,” she wrote on X last year, prior to becoming minister. “This has to be different. And fast too.”

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders also weighed in, accusing Yeşilgöz’s VVD party — which is part of the governing coalition, alongside Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s liberal D66 party and the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) — of having let “scum” into the country.

This is not the first time disturbances have occurred in the aftermath of a Morocco match. Following Morocco’s victory over the Netherlands in the Round of 32, police in The Hague arrested 13 people on suspicion of public violence or disrupting public order. Earlier in the year, after unrest linked to the Africa Cup of Nations final, authorities in The Hague detained a further 14 individuals.

Politics

How Trump radicalized the Belgians

Published

43 minutes ago

July 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump’s interference with FIFA’s disciplinary measures ahead of the U.S.-Belgium match had unintended consequences: He fired up the Belgians.

After limping through the group stage and first knockout round, Belgium cleaned the floor with the U.S. in the round of 16, after Trump intervened to help overturn a suspension for America’s key attacker, Folarin Balogun.

The Belgian squad wasted no time in trolling Trump after the match, as a viral clip from the team dressing room showed the players jiving like the U.S. president to his favorite campaign rally anthem: Y.M.C.A. by the Village People.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, a notorious soccerphobe, was then asked about Trump and the suspension saga during a key NATO military summit in Ankara.

“We didn’t speak about football,” De Wever said. “Football is, as they say, the most important of the non-important subjects, but it is still non-important, so I didn’t raise it,” he added, paraphrasing a remark widely attributed to soccer nut Pope John Paul II.

The Belgian national soccer team social media crew was blunter in its victorious post-match summary: “Overturn this,” it noted pointedly.

Politics

Belgian airline needles Spain ahead of World Cup quarterfinal

Published

1 hour ago

July 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Red Devil-themed Jupiler beer cans, football-shaped Leonidas chocolates and sticker collectables at the Delhaize supermarket — Belgium is all on its World Cup run.

Even the country’s flag carrier, Brussels Airlines, has gotten in on the act.

In a tongue-in-cheek gesture, Brussels Airlines is flying its Trident aircraft, painted in the colors and bearing the emblems of Belgium’s national football teams, to Spanish destinations including Madrid and Barcelona ahead of Friday’s World Cup quarterfinal between Belgium and Spain.

Asked about the move, Brussels Airlines declined to elaborate, saying via email: “We did not provide any comments, as we think the joke speaks for itself :).”

The specially designed aircraft features a trident in reference to the Red Devils, Belgium’s men’s national football team, alongside flames representing the women’s team, the Red Flames.

According to Brussels Airlines, the design was intended to highlight both teams because “it’s high time that the women’s team gets as much attention as the men’s team.”

Iberia, Spain’s national airline, also has a specially designed aircraft that flew the country’s national football team across the Atlantic. Instead of tridents and flames, it features an image of Spain’s squad alongside the slogan: “A team takes off. A country flies.”