July into August is a busy time for clubs involved in European qualification. Those who go straight into the groups that start in September have no idea of the required travel planning at short notice, the visa applications (which can stop fans visiting the UK as the process takes more than a week), let alone the stress in bringing together everything else so quickly. Personally, I don’t think it is right that clubs with no European pedigree go straight into group football purely on the basis that the country they come from is higher up the co-efficient table, from finishing 4th or below in any given league. Manchester City and Fulham both had to head to the Faroe Islands in July/August once in the not so distant past. In a world where business and money are airbrushing a lot of the romance out of football away, I wish UEFA would consider making these “bigger” sides sweat for the right to participate. They are allegedly fighting against the excesses of FIFA, so introducing a fairer qualification route would be one way of showing solidarity with the “lower” lands.
Amongst the many sides that passed through Scotland this summer, Benfica were undoubtedly the biggest. My goodness has the Portuguese co-efficient slipped to such an extent that the 14th biggest club in the world had to start Europa League qualification in round 2? The Lisbon giants budget is off the scale compared to anything a Scottish side can bring to the table, and a re-shuffling Hearts, after their near miss last term in the league, are essentially a new team with a new coach, with a dramatically different style of play being introduced. By virtue of that, the Estadio do Luz was always going to be far too hot to handle. However, a week later, albeit with a much changed Benfica side, doubtlessly playing within themselves to an extent, they were still given a proper test. Even the Benfica reserves and some regulars amounted to the highest value team to play a competitive match in Edinburgh, ever, I suspect. But these are the fixtures we want to see, Larne v Red Star Belgrade and Shelbourne v Ajax, two other great examples.
I have long had a passion for Kazakh football, and potentially the only club I truly cheer for anywhere in the world that ever wins anything worthy of the name is Kairat Almaty. They remain a curiosity of the Soviet era for me, despite never getting close to winning gongs back in the day, but glory hunting has never been my game. However, merely getting the chance to joust with the big Moscow clubs etc on occasion in the Supreme Soviet league was as big as it got for Kairat. My chosen European jaunt to see them this summer was another example of a lesser light getting a chance to play a once giant of the Belgian game in Anderlecht.
That said, Kairat started out in round 1 to the Champions League qualifiers, and were looking to make the group phase for a second consecutive year. Last term an eight game qualifying roster took them to the “promised land” and another eight games, played largely with the Kazakh league closed for winter in the group phase. A testing schedule, but no one embarrassed them, and Almaty got a visit from Real Madrid before winter truly kicked in, which resulted in the subsequent “home” games having to be moved to the indoor stadium in Astana, some 1,227 kilometres north, where the outside temperature was especially silly low!
During that campaign, I had the great delight in watching Kairat compete brilliantly in a narrow 2-1 loss at the San Siro to Inter Milan in front of a near full house of which 7,000 Kazakhs were present. These are the stories football needs, in my opinion. It might never happen again, I had to be there. I would have gone down to Arsenal too, but the asking price for a ticket was off the charts, and my enthusiasm starts to baulk when three figure face value tickets are all that are available.
Kairat were looking good to potentially repeat that feat this season, with Montenegrin champions Sutjeska and Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia seen off in the first two rounds. Then, in an extremely hostile environment away against a rejuvenated Levski Sofia, they only went down to an unlucky deflected goal in added time right at the end of the match 1-0. Storming back from narrow away losses is what Kairat do, but without Satpaev (I hope he gets a chance to shine at Chelsea one day, but he is loaned out to Burnley this term. A pearl of knowledge that would take me to Turf Moor 6 days after this match), the front line are less sure of themselves, missing that inventive, unpredictable genius that he brought to the play.
It was as if the return leg of this tie had a “curse” hanging over it. A pre-booked event at their Central Stadium home in Almaty meant an 829 kilometre trek to Turkistan for the return “home” leg. This very fine new stadium only holds 7,000, with both ends open without fans. The intimidation factor was gone, and Levski won 1-0 again to continue to the Play Off round. It was maybe asking too much for Kairat to repeat the heroics of 2025, but as they say, every cloud has a silver lining.
In 2018, when they came calling to The Netherlands, bizarrely, despite my world travels having taken me to more than 50 countries, it took Kairat being so close to get me on a plane to Amsterdam that would see me actually alight, and not merely be in-transit. On my first ever day in the country, I would see the Almaty club progress in the Europa League qualifiers at the expense of AZ Alkmaar. Eight years on, the last of the Benelux lands to indulge my Kazakh eccentricity finally came to fruition with Anderlecht seeing off PAOK Thessaloniki, setting up the Brussels giants as Kairat’s next opponent.
I had been to Belgium, but I last visited for any touristy gig as far back as 1987. I had never seen a game in the country until now. These things don’t bother me, I like what I like (Italy as you’ll be aware, always first, but not blind to its flaws), but I also keep a keen eye on the action in Luxembourg, Kazakhstan as we are discovering (all games live on Youtube) and the Faroe Islands, but that’s it, largely! My Belgian buddy Steph, Mr RWDM himself, was going to the Anderlecht versus PAOK game, just as I was headed to Hearts v Benfica. He had been in touch prior to the game, and knowing he could help me secure a ticket for the second leg in two weeks, saw some late night booking of flights, Brussels here I come.
Anderlecht had been on my viewing roster once previously, as far back as 1992, in a UEFA Cup first leg tie at Easter Road versus Hibs. I have been to nearly 100 European club matches, the majority in Scotland, and whether it is the mists of time or genuinely was the case, but through all those years, the first half display by Anderlecht was quite simply the most breathtaking football I have seen in all those European matches, certainly in Scotland by a visiting side. Leading two nil, it was the least they deserved. However, that old adage of 2-0 being a dangerous lead came home to haunt them. Whether they partly eased off thinking the job was done, we will never know, but the most unlikely lobbing of a mince pie at the linesman for an offside flag sure got the shed fired up, and that quickly spread to the pitch, where a Mickey Weir inspired comeback saw the Belgian side lucky to get out of Edinburgh with a draw in the end. The old up and at them tactic seems to have been taken out of the playbook, but I am sure on occasion it might still unsettle a more illustrious opponent. It worked a treat that night.
In European club football, can you think of, in the modern day at least, a bigger dip in success by any perceived “big club”, more than Anderlecht? Discount the Eastern European areas where a host of other variables are in play, but Anderlecht used to be the biggest club in Belgium, regularly competing in Europe in semi-finals and finals. They might still be the best supported team in the country but the silverware has dramatically dribbled away. Domestically they haven’t won the league since 2017, and the cup for even longer, making the notion these fans are sticking around in such big numbers all the more commendable. Loyalty is a great strength, but when such a lengthy period without a trophy comes along, especially for a fan base used to glory, albeit it back in the day, it adds humility to the supporting CV, and many a fan of sides who win everything regularly would do well to learn from the Anderlecht model. If only certain teams in Scotland went a decade without winning anything!
The rise of Union St Gilloise has certainly caught Anderlecht napping. Whether it is a temporary shift or something more permanent, that is up to the once “big” club to try and emulate one of the Jamestown analytics sides. It has seen a shift in Brussels football fan politics and who they dislike, with Anderlecht and RWDM fans almost united in their disdain for the newly resurrected kid on the block, Union SG. It is a very different story from yesteryear. Sadly for RWDM, they are now the third team of the city, but retain a loyal and willing fan base who they need right now.
Flights to Brussels airport directly were eye watering prices at two weeks’ notice, so I went for the budget airline joke notion of Brussels, an hour south in Charleroi. The bus whisked me to Midi station, where I had booked a hotel, allowing a quick throw-in of my bag to the room, and immediately off to taste the delights of a Belgian beer in Belgium for the first time in nearly 40 years! Quaffing of an amber nectar whilst shooting the breeze with Steph, and putting the world of football in perspective pre-match, you cannae beat it, as the Scotsman would say. Then it was off to the Lotto, clandestinely supporting the opposition amid a home crowd, again, albeit with low expectations.
The first leg had essentially killed this tie. A very early goal for Anderlecht settled them down. Two subsequent first half strikes and a home red card made me think of moving the couch off the wall to hide behind for the second period. However, a bit like Anderlecht at Easter Road all those years ago, they eased down, and Kairat restored some pride with a battling second half, where they created a chance or two along the way, without altering the scoreline, sadly. I was under no illusion that they could get this tie back in Brussels, this was more a case of enjoying the occasion and awaiting the fixtures for the Conference League, and see if they end up somewhere close to the UK again. The Conference scenario might just be a good fit for them at the present time, with a chance of some victories and progression, as well as a fixture roster tied up by Christmas, affording this squad a proper break, at last.
The Lotto Park, the name given to the Anderlecht stadium, is an advert for the National Lottery as it transpires. I was a little tight for time upon checking into my hotel. I asked the receptionist if I could get a taxi booked in 30 minutes to whisk me to Lotto Park. He was tapping away on his computer, I thought he was filling in an online booking form, but it transpired he was Google mapping. “A taxi to Antwerpen will be very expensive” he came back with, to my horror. It seems that in the city famed for its gold, they have a concert venue with the same name. No one calls it Lotto Park in Brussels. It is Parc Astrid. Although, in truth, I am unsure the chap really knew anything about football, let alone Anderlecht. I learned from Steph that the original name sticks, and rightly so. While the Astrid (Channel 4 TV show forever comes to mind with this name!) has changed beyond recognition from back in the day, now a very well appointed all-seater, although with a 22,500 capacity, at times it must be a real bun fight to get a brief. The club has always played here, and it is literally in a park called Astrid. Sadly, no romantic bandstand or swing park for the wee ones as per Stair Park, Stranraer, but plenty of trees and bushes for a pre and post visitation for those who can’t wait in line for the very small toilet facilities in the ground!
The area of Anderlecht and the surrounding streets are a wealth of bars and catering for tailgating without a car boot! On an oppressively muggy evening, much quaffing ahead of this one was visible on the streets, and it seemed rude not to participate. RSC Anderlecht fans in their unusual mauve colours make for a striking apparel for those of us unused to seeing such shades of purple, save occasionally having seen Fiorentina, or Defensor Sporting in Uruguay. Incidentally, the RSC stands for Royal Sporting Club, with the first word being something a club can apply for after 50 years of existence. After 118 years, they have more than deserved it. This idea got me thinking, Royal Celtic!!
This was a dead game as previously mentioned, I have been specialising in them this qualifying campaign with a 0-6 agg, 2-7, and here it would end 6-0 over the two games, to add to the roster. In truth for the first 45 minutes Kairat, despite playing a lot of reserves (even their sensational keeper Anarbekov, who single handedly knocked out Celtic last term was given a rare night off) were making a game of it. A VAR decision, two minutes after the incident occurred awarded the home team a penalty with the last kick of the half, which signalled a more cautious, lets just get out of here attitude in the second half by the Kazakhs, who proceeded to lose two more goals. To be fair to a near capacity crowd, the home fans were loving every minute, and the atmosphere was more akin to something a lot tighter than what was being played out in front of us. As to how Anderlecht get on in the Europa League, it will be interesting to keep an eye on. The standard in even the second European competition looks high, but sadly without Satpaev, Kairat are well short of the necessary skill set.
With a morning in the city before a late lunch-time bus back to Charleroi, my hotel was a leisurely stroll away from the central delights of the Grand Place and the wee lad who forever pees, the manneken pis. I had forgotten what a magnificent square the Grand Place is, with just about every building with its gold features, it is quite a beautiful sight. I had obviously got up early and arrived just ahead of the tourist throngs, which was nice. The delivery vans are obviously allowed access first thing in the morning to stock up the bars and restaurants around the Place, with the requisite goodies to see them through another busy day.
I had thoroughly enjoyed my sojourn to Brussels, and quite why it had taken so long to comeback, and see a first game here are both questions for the psychologists couch, but as I said to Steph upon parting after a fine night of quality chat, next time it will be to see RWDM, the only club in Brussels for me!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 