“Violence was the only goal, people came from the Netherlands to Bruges purely for entertainment. These were not people who happened to come to watch football with their son or daughter,” the public prosecutor’s office said. The court of appeal in Ghent sentenced 19 hooligans to 2 years of suspended jail time and a stadium ban of 3 or 5 years. Two others received 30 months in prison and a 5-year stadium ban.
The court of first instance in Bruges had first ruled that the criminal action for armed unruliness and violence against the police was inadmissible. All defendants were then acquitted of gang formation.
