At the end of December, the Consultation Committee decided not to allow an audience to participate in indoor and outdoor sports competitions. A major blow through the bill of all sports associations, the amateurs in particular.
Voetbal Vlaanderen, which represents amateur football, promptly decided to postpone the first 2 match days of 2022 (January 9 and 16) and the third (January 23) also if the public ban would not be relaxed by then. “Our clubs need that income,” it reads.
At the end of December, the cultural sector successfully went to the Council of State to have its ban on the public lifted. The Council of State assessed that the measures for culture are “disproportionate and not based on adequate motives”.
Voetbal Vlaanderen is of the same opinion for its sector and is also playing with the Council of State as an idea. But for now it will have to wait a while. “We are not going to appeal against the decision of the Consultation Committee of December 22, about measures until January 28. Because we will not suffer irreparable damage there,” explains Van Craen to our editors.
“If the measure is extended beyond January 28, we will consider appealing against that decision, because then we will run into problems.”
“There is therefore a violation of the principle of equality, because the culture is allowed to play theater with 200 spectators and we are not allowed to receive spectators outside. We will already lobby in that direction to get that through by early February.”
The date of the next Consultation Committee has not yet been definitively set.
