The Walloon clash was interrupted for almost ten minutes, just after the 60th second of play.
Yoni, a great supporter of Charleroi and member of the Storms Ultras, tragically died this week, at the age of 40. Fred Gérard, his real name, died of illness.
A tribute was obviously planned by Zebras fans before the match. A huge banner, “Yoni, forever in our hearts”, is displayed in front of the stand in which the Storms Ultras are placed. A small poster, “RIP Yoni”, is placed in front of the visitors’ stand.
The players then go onto the pitch, the kick-off takes place, but the first minute is played silently, without any singing from either side. Kuavita, on a first breakthrough after 40 seconds, provokes the first shudder from the Standard supporters, while those of Charleroi remain silent.
At the 60th second mark in this match, the supporters continued their action: smoke bombs were lit along the entire length of T4, as well as in the visitors’ block.
An action which caused the game to be stopped for several minutes. While the 22 players exchanged a few passes to stay warm in the cold of Mambourg and Jasper Vergoote increased the width of the field, the match only resumed eight minutes later, on a corner for Standard. Quite the start of a Walloon shock.
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