Poland kicks Belgian ass in Euro Championships

Poland have succeeded in qualifying for the Euro Football championships next year after their 2-0 defeat of Belgium in Chorzow tonight. So as the domestic hooligans are a little too happy tonight to beat the living daylights out of anybody they meet on the street, how about the impact of defeat on the poor Belgians. Indeed, their loss couldn't have come at a worse time.

Belgium is an odd entity. It has survived on a shoestring for 45 years since the beginning of the E.U. project, it's unifying principles steadily devolving into irrelevance. The lefty-leaning, formerly prosperous Wallonia seems to have nothing going for it at the moment - except for Brussels, of course; whereas the fascistic-leaning, lingua-Franca-hating (you could be lynched if you don't speak Dutch in some areas) Flanders region has the money, the confidence and the ever-increasing capacity to divorce it's unwanted siamese sibling.

Indeed the hatred amongst them seems to even surpass the bitterness of Polish hooligan factions. I kid you not! The following opinions are allegedly mainstream nowadays in the land of the phlegms (sorry, Flems) - how dare I be so prejudicial!

The British Guardian daily recently quoted Flemish nationalist Bart de Wever refusing to accept that Belgium's stability as a state was in both internal regions' interests.

'You can co-operate better as good neighbours than as an unhappily married couple. I'm not a Flemish Milosevic,' he stated.

He carried on to stress that Brussels would have to become the capital of the independent state of Flanders.

'Ten years ago Belgium had its football team, its monarchy, the Belgian franc and Brussels. Now it only has Brussels. For us, it's just the last obstacle.'

According to the Guardian, Flemish politicians increasingly emphasise that the 'Czechoslovakia option' is the best way forward, drawing on the fact that the peaceful divorce forming the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 has been regarded a success for both states.

The Brussels Journal sums up the crisis succintly.

'The Walloon politicians refuse to join a government led by Yves Leterme, the leader of the Flemish Christian-Democrats, who won the Belgian general elections last June 10th. All the major parties in Flanders are demanding greater autonomy for Flanders, the most capitalist-minded (and consequently most prosperous) part of the country, which has been funding the less affluent (because socialist-oriented) south since Belgium’s establishment in 1830-31.'

Formed in 1830-31 as a political experiment of unity amongst two nationalities, Belgium's 6 million Dutch-speakers in Flanders are growing impatient with the 3 million French-speakers in Wallonia and the 1 million people in Flander's capital Brussels - which is politically and culturally Wallonian. So it's fair enough to think that Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s current Prime Minister, was drunk or had too many magic mushrooms when he recently claimed that Belgium is “the laboratory of European unification.”

With slurred speech and beady eyes he further spluttered

Foreign politicians watch our country with particular interest because it can teach them something about the feasibility of the European project.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!
What a great sense of humour that guy has - he should be a stand up comedian, not a politician.

But with a recent opinion poll claiming that 45 per cent of the Flemish populus agreeing with the break up of Belgium in contrast to a mere 20 per cent of Walloons in favour, it seems like Belgium will have to remain united as a state and soccer team for many more years. They (the Belgian state and soccer team) have more in common than meets the naked eye - they both suck, big time!

So maybe we shouldn't be too surprised if Flanders and Wallonia have to battle it out on the soccer pitch in years to come as they attempt to qualify for the Euro Football Championships in 2012, due to be hosted in Poland and the Ukraine.