The Swedish Football Federation has called on its supporters present in Brussels for the Euro-2024 qualifiers to return as quickly as possible after the attack on Monday evening, which left two Swedish victims.
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It was in haste that Martin Fredman, head of the Swedish Federation, announced to AFP this Tuesday, October 17 that he had asked some 400 Swedish supporters to “to put away all their blue and yellow jerseys (colors of the Swedish flag, editor’s note) and go home“. There will be no chartered flights: everyone has been ordered to take their return ticket and follow the recommendations communicated by the Swedish authorities – in particular to conceal any sign showing that they are from the Scandinavian country.
Flights to Stockholm, Sweden, will therefore be operated in a “fragmented and individual“, unlike the buses under police protection which had been chartered to repatriate Swedish supporters from the stadium to their hotels during the night from Monday to Tuesday. The Red Cross will be present on arrival to welcome the fans, offer them help and support because two Swedish supporters lost their lives and injured one. The perpetrator of this attack, a 45-year-old Tunisian living illegally in Belgium, was killed this Tuesday morning by the police.
The Scandinavians are in shock since, as the security manager notes, “As Swedes we are not used to being targets“. Effectively, Eric Van Duyse, the spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, estimated that there “probable motivation” of the murderer would have been “the Swedish nationality of the victims”. Concerning the match stopped at half-time between Belgium and Sweden (1-1), the manager did not give details surrounding a possible resumption, specifying that a dialogue had to be carried out on this subject with the UEFA.