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Johan Leman, 18 May 2022

Brussels has an enormous potential of candidate (sub)top sportsmen and sportswomen. It could also become a city with the greatest possible variety of sports, which in itself could be very interesting, internationally speaking. But  you have to conclude that Brussels, apart from a few brilliant exceptions, especially in football and a few combat sports, performs very poorly in terms of sports output. When I say ‘sport’, I mean active sport, not the supporters.  Considering its young population, considering the potential that can find its way in life through sports, a much higher return should be achieved.

What is the reason for this? The municipal fragmentation? It may be, but… the municipalities can also integrate into a common Brussels vision and infrastructural approach, guided by former top sportsmen and top coaches.

Occasionally, the consequences of the fragmentation and lack of vision come to the fore. The alderman for sport in Molenbeek discovers that proportionately far fewer children and young people are involved in javelin throwing than in football and … well, that determines his sports policy.  When I once approached another sports alderman from another Brussels municipality asking about a cricket ground, he clearly didn’t know what he was talking about and confused cricket with hockey. You would expect someone like that to know by now that Pakistanis and Afghans in Brussels are keen on cricket. I could go on and on with the anecdotes.

The crux of the matter: there is no vision on sports policy, and that manifests itself in the area of planning and provision of infrastructure. In Brussels, sport – football aside – is a thing that is not professionally treated in politics. Can’t we have a useful  debate about this in the Brussels parliament … and if there is one place where, institutionally, you can do without the logic of communities and regions in Brussels, and also implement multilingualism, it is surely sport?

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