World star Lionel Messi can be admired on a Belgian football field for the first time.
Yesterday, the Argentinian arrived at Ostend airport with his teammates. From there it went by PSG bus to a hermetically sealed hotel in Oostkamp.
At 6 pm the stars trained in the Jan Breydel Stadium. The media (yesterday) and public (tonight during the match) interest in the match between Club Brugge and PSG is enormous.
“This goes beyond football. Everyone is a bit captivated by Messi and all the stars who have come to Bruges,” says Bob Madou, Chief Business Officer at Club Brugge.
“The match will be broadcast live in 85 countries, the summary will be shown in 200 countries. There are also 170 journalists accredited. They are not in our press gallery every week. It will be the first time that a match with a Belgian club will be like this. distributed globally.”
“Everything is sold out, nobody wants to miss the game. We had to disappoint people because the demand was much greater than the supply. We could have sold out the stadium more than once.”
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Whenever these kinds of posters are on the calendar, the call for a new accommodation in Bruges is even louder. Likewise today.
Bob Madou: “The business and catering options would have been much greater in a new stadium. Now about 1,500 people eat in the stadium, that could have been 4 to 5 times as many in the new stadium.”
During Champions League matches, the European football association UEFA sets strict rules. The clubs have to hand over control, everything transcends normal operation.
Madou: “The TV channels also have different wishes than with normal matches in the Belgian competition. For example, separate cameras are aimed at Messi, Mbappé and Neymar. That provides less freedom for our own cameramen.”
You would almost forget: what can Club throw in the balance tonight? “
“This is our 5th Champions League group stage in 6 years. So we are no longer a newcomer. But of course we hope that we do well sportingly and can achieve a good result. That would be the icing on the cake. There we all go in front of.”
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