Every year, the authorities of the City of Brussels distribute thousands of free tickets for sporting events and shows – but the system is being criticised for its lack of transparency, especially following social media giveaways organised by an MR councillor.
The City of Brussels owns several venues, including the King Baudouin Stadium, and as such, it benefits from the allocation of tickets to some events.
Many of these are smaller in scale, but others are more high-level and include the recent concert by global superstar Bad Bunny (400 tickets), the Red Devils' matches (640 tickets) and the Van Damme Memorial (over 400 tickets) scheduled for late August.
However, the criteria the administration uses to redistribute the tickets are being criticised for being too opaque.
Le Soir reports that it is not the administration that arranges how the tickets are redistributed. Instead, the political groups are in charge.
Access to a few seats for members of the City of Brussels' council, particularly for networking purposes, is not being called into question. However, the lack of transparency surrounding the distribution of tickets to others is raising questions over cronyism.
'Unethical'
This was brought to the fore due to a controversy involving the City of Brussels councillor Florence Frelinx (MR) this summer. Like her predecessors, Frelinx distributes the tickets received for any event at the King Baudouin Stadium at her own discretion.
She did this by organising competitions on her personal social media accounts – a practice that politicians in the opposition believe is crossing a line.
"On 22 July, Bad Bunny will have Brussels buzzing… and we have 5 x 2 tickets to give away! To enter and win the very latest tickets, fill in the form," she posted on Facebook and Instagram.
The opposition has condemned this as what they called "shameless cronyism".
Bruno Bauwens of Belgium's Workers Party (PVDA-PTB) said the practice "disgusts" him. Meanwhile, Benoit Hellings of the francophone greens (Ecolo) said that while he does not know if it is legal, it is "certainly unethical".
The Brucity building in Brussels. Credit: Belga/Hatim Kaghat
At the last municipal council meeting on 29 June, the leader of Team Fouad Ahidar (TFA) in the City of Brussels, Mourad Maimouni, did not hold back in his criticism of Frelinx regarding her entry into the competition for the concert by the K-pop group BTS.
"You did not buy these tickets; you received them in your capacity as a councillor," he said. "This is the very essence of cronyism. Also, what are you doing with the data you’ve collected that you are not entitled to obtain?"
Frelinx, meanwhile, denied any wrongdoing, stating that the project "made a few families happy". Additionally, she said there was no problem with personal data collection through this initiative, as participants had the option to click a box to consent to the storage of their data or to subscribe to the councillor's newsletter.
"You are under absolutely no obligation to click on either one," Frelinx said.
Contacted by Le Soir, Frelinx repeated that she wanted to bring joy to a few internet users. "You can see the negative side in everything, but the reality is that this competition had only this single objective."
"Making these tickets available is part of the standard process for managing municipal facilities," she added. "The King Baudouin Stadium is no exception."
Rotating tickets
These free tickets are indeed a prerogative of the councillors, depending on their areas of responsibility, La Libre reports.
Being the City of Brussels' sport councillor, Frelinx gets tickets to certain major concerts, the Red Devils games and the Van Damme Memorial – as they take place in the King Baudouin Stadium.
Her colleague in charge of culture, Nawal Ben Hamou (PS), manages 16 seats in two boxes at the Cirque Royal. Her office told Le Soir that these are used to run competitions for residents via the City’s website or the Brusseleir (the local newspaper) and for staff members via the HR internal newsletter, always by random draw.
In his capacity as chair of the non-profit organisation Brussels Expo, which manages the facilities at Heysel, City of Brussels mayor Philippe Close (PS) receives tickets for the ING Arena.
Frelinx, meanwhile, stressed that the largest allocation of tickets is reserved for clubs and associations on a rotational basis, without providing figures.
