Philip Goss is on holiday in Italy, but the seismic shocks from Westerlo-Jenk and the 90-minute podcast could be felt there. And so his car ride through the Alps yesterday was filled with telephone conversations. Hands-free, it's a no-brainer!
Podcasts that move the mood are great in and of themselves. That was exactly the case for the last 90 minutes, thanks to Westerlo-Jink's terrible final stretch.
I wouldn't call it a parlor draw, I would call it match-fixing, and I still stand by this: What happened in Quebec goes against everything this sport should be, and you can't look at those last five minutes as a normal course of competition.
Given the circumstances (Westerlo with eleven players to ten, Westerlo who only had to win and nothing to lose due to the clear defeat to Charleroi, Racing Genk who definitely had to get a point) it seemed reasonable to me (albeit always in a conditional sense) (But this easily disappears once the Internet turns spoken language into written language) That Jenks coach Wouter Franken was involved somewhere in this skit, and that his role had to be investigated as well.
I have now contacted Franken, had a long and difficult conversation, and believe in his innocence.
How exactly those terrible five minutes developed will remain an open question. There is no doubt that they are shocking. But it cannot be ruled out that this happened quietly, and without explicit encouragement from both banks.
Ric De Mel and Westerlo are in their own bubble with that week's slogan (“One point and we're saved, one point and we're saved!”) and Racing Genk have naturally come to terms with that. Clearly none of the coaches realized that the extreme negativity on the field would be blamed and that both football and AA Gent were being disadvantaged.
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