From ultra’s to families with children and hipsters: Union supporters about why everything else feels at home in the Dudenpark (inland)

« I thought I had ended up in Rome, » says Herman van Lent (62) about the first time he arrived in the Stadium of Union, thirty years ago. « I saw a dilapidated stone construction, which was more like a Roman amphitheater than a football stadium. So tall, but so clean, » said Herman about the Dudenpark. Three decades later, the football stadium in the middle of the Brussels park is still the theater of the football team from Sint-Gillis. Then Union was a third division, now the champion is first.

« I saw yellow-blue males appear between the trees when I walked to the stadium, » says Herman about his first introduction to the Dudenpark in the last century. “The trees of the Dudenpark grew as it were through the gradins from the stadium. Two police officers of the communales Van Brussel arranged things there, and that was sufficient. I heard Frans, Vlaams, Brussels and Spanish speak in the stands. An orchestra of three men played. We lost that match with 0-6, but I was in love before a ball rolled there. « 

« That orchestra of three men, that was the most important thing. Football has always been a side issue »

Herman van Lent (62)

Unionist since 1995

Herman, who was born in Brussels but built up his life in Bornem, lost his heart that day in the Dudenpark and would continue to return. “A subscription? You didn’t have that gain Because no cat came to see. Union played for 400 to 600 hundred people. You could just buy a ticket at the entrance. In such a concrete room where a hand appeared under the window. Magnifique.« 

It is about the « atmosphere », the « dilapidated stadium » and « that orchestra of three men, » says Herman, for whom the love for Union has little to do with the game on the turf. « Football has always been a side issue. » On his own Herman went from Bornem to the then third division team. The unionists of the first hour became his friends, whom he fell into his arms in the Dudenpark on Sunday after the last whistle.

« Everyone feels safe. People pay attention to each other and the Ultra’s ultimate violence »

Emily Deglas (44)

Unionist since 2004

At that time, Emily Deglas (44) appeared on the side of Lorin Parys on the field. Emily was selected to primordial – Together with the CEO of the Pro League – to hand over the champion cup to the players of Union. Emily, who has been a supporter for more than twenty years, did not wear Union football sweater. A (blue-yellow) T-shirt with signatures of The anciens. « All fans who have been there for decades, » says Emily. « Everyone dreamed of seeing Union in first class again. Some have not even experienced that anymore, because they are no longer there in the meantime. I wanted them to be there too, Sunday. I took them on my T-shirt. »

Just like Herman, Emily is in the third class. Her love for the club, however, started in a fight with the supporters. “My brother then played at Stadsrivalrival RWDM and gave a sneer to Union in the local newspaper. Social media did not yet exist, but on the Union forum the supporters started to visited my brother. I signed up on that forum to defend him. I soon noticed that the Union supporters were not a fight, it was before, it was before, before swans.  » Emily was invited to swans at a pint in the Dudenpark and fell in love with Union.

« Léo was six weeks when he attended his first match, asleep. Later he took his toy cars to the Dudenpark. » Last Sunday, Léo did not need a distraction when he took his mum in the stands. There were a striking number of women and families with children. « I’ve never had any problems, » says Emily. « In the beginning there were not many women, but now there are even feminists. Everyone is welcome and feels safe at Union. People appeal to each other and pay attention to each other. Even the young Ultra’s, who have only been added in recent years, swear violence. Occasionally you have a few men with warm blood, but they are always stopped by the leaders. »

In addition to women and families with children, people of color in large numbers can also be found in the stands of Union, while they are strongly under -represented in our other football clubs. Expats with a job in the EU bubble of Brussels, newcomers in the outskirts, Belgians with a migration background: they all find their way to the Dudenpark.

“Toute Ma Vie Unioniste Anti -Fasciste, that was the first thing I heard in the Dudenpark. Then I knew I had found my team”

Jesus Aguirre (53)

Unionist from Spain

« I go to football with Spanish, Congolese, Moroccan, Turkish and Italian friends, » says Spanish unionist Jesus Aguirre (53). « In Anderlecht and RWDM the public is white, with us you see the Brussels mix in the stadium, » said Jesus, who moved from Santander to Sint-Gillis in the early 1970s when his parents were looking for work. Jesus Union discovered as forty. “ »Toute ma vie unioniste anti -fasciste, That was the first singing I heard in the Dudenpark. Then I knew that my team had found, « said the Spaniard whose grandfather was still imprisoned by the Spanish dictator Franco. » I never heard players be whistled, always his supporters positive. « 

Caro Wolfs (23) was also there on Sunday. « I don’t have anything with football, » said the student gender and diversity who was taken by friends to Union in 2022. “I fell in love with the atmosphere and cosiness. Caro is one of the many young and hip people who have discovered Union in recent years. ‘Hipster’ are not only wearing a neck carpet and drinking Matcha tea today, but also to support Union.“ In the beginning, in 2022, that was not so bad, but in the meantime it is indeed a thing of the thing. I even got hip Anderlecht supporters here, « said Caro with a smile.

What her, anti -fascist Jesus and Oersupporters Emily and Herman binds? Football is incidental.