Your European Football Weekends

Welcome to the new Belgian section of the EFW website. Belgium join The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland and Spain in becoming privileged enough to hold down their own section in the 'Your European Football Weekends' category. I'm certain PM Herman Van Rompuy will shortly announce an additional annual public holiday in Belgium as a result.

Belgium

EFW favourites Royal Antwerp away to UR Namur anyone!? (yes please - Ed).

As usual the travelling Royal Antwerp fans outnumbered the home fans.

Royal Antwerp won 3-0 against the already relegated UR Namur.

*gulp*

Our Antwerp mates drank the best beer in the world before the match!

These were the scenes when the EFW beer stocks ran dry.

There are certain grounds in Europe that tend to stir the emotions more than most. Forget four banks of similarly coloured seats in an all new identikit stadium. These grounds are loved for the OSF (Old School Factor). One such ground is the Stade Joseph Marien, home to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise and located within the suburbs of Brussels.

Both Andrew (England) and our old pal Stephane have been there this year and here is a small sample of their photos. A wider selection can be found on our EFW Facebook site which now has approaching 1,000 photos from your trips. This is the Union end. A huge open terrace which everybody loves.

They play in the Belgian Third Division A...

....and have been knocking about in Belgium since 1897.

And here is the real reason everybody loves going there! Sam is seen here holding a tray full of lovely beer. Rumour has it, he downed the lot leaving Stephane and Christophe dry. Want to know more about football grounds in Brussels!? (Yes please - Ed) then head here.

Anybody fancy a local derby in the Belgian Division 4B!? (yes please - Ed)

EFW Gold members Pat and Steven went to the Tubantia Borgerhout v Berchem Sport derby in the suburbs of Antwerp (08:03:09).

The famous 'club 64 bar' at the ground was packed throughout.

Even the players ran to get a beer at half time (see above).

Tubantia Borgerhout here we come.

Our pals from Royal Antwerp travelled to ROC Charleroi for the match at the Stade de la Neuville (01/03/09). As is the norm with Royal Antwerp, the away fans virtually outnumbered the home faithful.

What's not to like!?

Here's a few of our mates from Antwerp. Football and beer = happy days!

How did Mark Hirst choose to celebrate his 40th birthday!? With a Belgian EFW of course. We can claim a slight assist here at HQ as we pointed him the right direction regarding match tickets for him and his mates. First stop for him was KV Mechelen v KAA Gent which finished 3-3 on Valentines Day. LOVEly.

Then they popped over to Charleroi for their local derby with RSC Anderlecht (15:02:09).

The RSC Anderlect fans.

The only complaint Mark has is that he can't stop singing the fans songs still. It's a common problem for us here in the office as well.

Giant flag - tick.

So what else did he get up to!? Well naturally he went to the Constant Vanden Stock, home to RSC Anderlecht, found the magic door, got on the pitch, sat in the dug out and finally got chased off the pitch. The perfect EFW. Here is Hirsty (left) on the bench with his pal Martyn Clarke. Happy birthday mate!