Despite success for Botafogo and Crystal Palace, Eagle Football’s gamble at RWDM fails to come off | OneFootball

RWDM will be playing second tier football again next season. The side from Brussels narrowly missed out on automatic promotion in the final minutes of the regular season. Clearly, that had an impact on the squad, as they then lost in dramatic fashion during round one of the play-offs against Lokeren-Temse. The side had rallied back from a 2-0 first leg deficit to take a 3-2 lead with just 18 minutes left in the game. However, they then conceded two goals in the space of three minutes to see their season brought to an abrupt end.

Fans of the club will certainly be questioning the choices made by the powers that be. After the final game of the regular season, the club parted ways with head coach Yannick Ferrera. Instead, it appeared that his assistant Igor De Camargo, a former striker with plenty of experience in the Belgian leagues, would take over for the play-offs. Yet there was inteference from elsewhere, with Lyon academy coach Gueïda Fofana being given the job to manage the side just for the play-offs. Fofana’s time at the club lasted less than a week, as they failed at the first hurdle. Clearly, this decision was a poor one, and an unfair situation for Fofana to be put in. Chances of him being able to get the side prepared in a way that he wanted to would have been impossible in such a short space of time.

This gamble means that the club are facing another season in the second tier. They should have gone up automatically, but on multiple occasions in the run in failed to win games that would have secured their return to the top flight at the first time of asking. In a year where Eagle Football has had success in Brazil with Botafogo and this past weekend with Crystal Palace, their work in Brussels is not the most popular with the fan base at this moment in time.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson