Soccer friendly moves from Belgium to Portugal after Brussels attacks

Countries’ federations reach agreement after next Tuesday’s match initially called off; Belgian team training also canceled

By AP 23 March 2016, 4:33 pm

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People gather to observe a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the Brussels airport and metro bombings a day earlier, on the Place de la Bourse in central Brussels, March 23, 2016 (AFP/Patrik Stollarz)

Belgium’s football friendly against Portugal next week has been moved from Brussels to the Portuguese city of Leiria, due to the deadly terror attacks in the Belgian capital on Tuesday.

The Belgian federation reached agreement with its Portuguese counterpart on Wednesday, hours after it called off the match. The game is still scheduled for next Tuesday.

At least 30 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Tuesday’s bombings at the Brussels airport and a subway station. The country is at its highest terrorism alert level, meaning there’s a risk of an imminent attack.

Belgium, one of the favorites to win this summer’s European Championship, has canceled training for the friendly since the attacks.

Smoke billows from a metro station in Maalbeek, Brussels after a blast at the site on March 22, 2016 (screen capture: YouTube)

Marc Wilmots, the national coach and a former all-action midfielder who played at four World Cups for the Red Devils himself, had wanted the game to go ahead as scheduled in Brussels.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls promised this summer’s Euro 2016 soccer tournament would go ahead as planned in France on June 10-July 10, for which Belgium is among the favorites.

Spectators invade the pitch of the Stade de France stadium after the international friendly soccer France against Germany, Friday, November 13, 2015 in Saint Denis, outside Paris. (Photo by AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Asked whether it was wise to maintain the event, given the level of threat of there being another terrorist attack, Valls said not to do so would be “a victory for terrorists.”

An international friendly between Netherlands and France scheduled for Friday evening “will take place as scheduled” despite the attacks in the neighboring country, the Royal Dutch Football Federation said Wednesday.

A France-Germany soccer match at Paris’s Stade de France was among the targets attacked by Islamic State terrorists on November 13 in a multiple terror spree that killed 130 people. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at the stadium, killing one bystander. The bombers had sought unsuccessfully to enter the stadium.

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