Belgian goalie fluffs it - BIG time

Or as one of Belgium's national broadcasters RTL described him when it ran the story, "The world's worst goalkeeper III".

Yes it's a footballing story from Belgium, complete with video of a moment Damien Lahaye will surely never forget.

Damien Lahaye (screenshot from YouTube video)

Any story about Belgium is bound to be confusing because names of town and cities change according to the language.

Remember it's a country incorporating (roughly speaking) Dutch-speaking Flanders in the northern half and French-speaking Wallonia (which also includes a small German-speaking community) in the southern half.

This tale of the Beautiful Game involves two teams from Flanders, both playing in the country's top division, and has the added spice of being a derby of sorts as they're only 25 kilometres apart.

The home side last weekend was Koninklijke Voetbalclub Kortrijk (Dutch) or KV Courtrai (French) and the visitors Koninklijke Atletieke Associatie Gent (KAA Gent)/ La Gantoise.

Just to add to the confusion of course the English spelling of the Gent includes an "h" to become Ghent.

No there weren't five teams on the pitch, although perhaps Courtrai's goalie thought there were.

Anyway enough of the geography lesson. Grab an map of the country if you wish.

Back to Lahaye's blunder.

The game had entered the final 10 minutes and Ghent striker Ilombe M'Boyo made a cross which his team mates in the penalty area couldn't quite get their heads to.

Never mind - in came Lahaye to the rescue as he failed to scoop up the ball and instead allowed it through his legs for a GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAL - as the Brazilians might put it.

Jubliation from Courtrai's supporters.

The goal was accredited to M'Boyo as nobody else had touched the thing.

And Lahaye did only what any professional would do under the circumstances; he picked the ball up, booted it upfield and then put his head in his hands in shame.

Final score: Courtrai 0 - Ghent 1

Ah The Beautiful Game can throw up some memorable moments. And not always for the right reason.

Belgium's new Miss reflects country's political divisions

An odd title for a piece perhaps, but there's surely a good deal of truth to it.

If France thought it had problems choosing a Miss to represent it at upcoming international beauty pageants, then surely they pale in significance when compared to those of its smaller northeastern neighbour Belgium.

Miss Belgium 2011, Justine De Jonckheere (screenshot from an interview on RTL-TVi)

The election as Miss Belgium of 18-year-old Justine De Jonckheere from the town of Wevelgem in West Flanders earlier this month seems to underline, as far as some of her competitors from the French-speaking part of country are apparently concerned, the linguistic disparities that exist among the population of almost 11 million people.

All right, so that might be putting the matter a little strongly, but for Lucie Demaret, the candidate from the French-speaking province of Hainaut, the competition was unfairly weighted towards representatives from Dutch-speaking Flanders.

And when the jury composed of, what the certainly not unbiased French language regional Belgian daily La Nouvelle Gazette pointed out to its readers, five Dutchophones and two Francophones announced the final five whose names would be put forward to a public vote, it was "obvious" to Demaret that the competition had been "fixed".

"I immediately understood their strategy," the 22-year-old, described by the paper as a "multilingual political science student with a dream figure", said.

"They simply eliminated the candidate who could overshadow Justine De Jonckheere."

That was a point of view shared by another French-speaking contestant, Lara Binet.

As Miss Liège she reportedly won the text message vote from viewers and was entitled to an automatic place in the final five.

But she too was eliminated and, according to another French language daily in Belgium, La Dernière Heure, her family has accused the organising committee of cheating.

That's a claim the president of the organising committee, Darline Devos, rejects.

She said the competition reflected "the diversity that exists within Belgium" and insists the winner was elected according to the rules.

"Nobody can 'buy' the title," she told the French-speaking Belgian website L'Avenir.

"It's not 'for sale', and I simply wish the best contestant is elected Miss Belgium."

Now this might all seem like "handbags at dawn" stuff. But there is a serious side to it as the French national daily Le Monde points out.

It is, suggests the paper, just another example of the problems Belgium is currently facing with not even a beauty contest being "immune".

In other words, as incredible as it might seem, the election of a new Miss somehow reflects the country's political divisions.

Not so far fetched perhaps given the fact that Belgium has been without an elected government since June last year and there is currently a political stalemate which the BBC (among others) puts down to growing divisions between the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority (just over six million) and the French-speaking Walloon minority (just over three million).

Justine De Jonckheere : Miss Belgique 2011 Vidéo Video-i-Buzz sélectionnée dans Actualité

Map of Belgium redrawn by French TV

Hands up those of you who can pinpoint Belgium on a map of Europe...without cheating.

All right there might be excuses for those far away who aren't too au fait with the geography of the "Old Continent".

And maybe Brits should be let off to as many there view the country as "small, boring and flat", with the only reference made to it a negative one as Brussels, the capital and "home" to the European Union often portrayed and perceived as attempting to take over all aspects of daily life.

But how about neighbours France? The French should be able to understand the place after all they share a common language with a certain number of folk living there.

But earlier this week one prime time news broadcast got things very wrong.

Belgium is in the news at the moment after the fall of yet another government. An election has been called for June.

It's a country of almost 11 million with a Dutch-speaking majority and a French-speaking minority separated into Flanders and Wallonia respectively.

There's also another, much smaller, German-speaking minority.

The differences between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities have often been at the heart of the political divide in Belgium, and it was in attempting to shed some light on the ins and out during Monday's prime time news that France's main private TV station TF1, treated its viewers - and those able to watch across the border - to a rather distorted map of its smaller neighbour.

In what was surely a faux pas of monumentally embarrassing proportions, the channel showed a map of Belgium with the regions clearly marked.

Except where Flanders should have been there was the name of Wallonia and vice versa of course.


Whoops.

A solution to the problem of the bilingual capital Brussels perhaps as far as French-speakers would be concerned.

The city is actually surrounded by Dutch-speaking suburbs (you really do need to know your geography to understand completely) but TF1's map appeared to resolve that issue neatly by plonking it in Wallonia (are you following?).

It was of course all a mistake, and one anchor Harry Roselmack put right the following evening.

"Turning to Belgium, and first of all apologies to our viewers there who tune in every evening," he began.

"Last night we showed a map of Belgium in which Wallonia was where Flanders should have been and vice versa," he continued.

"It was a serious mistake, which we've corrected this evening," he motioned to his left, before once again launching into another report on the problems the country is facing with the split between the two communities, a general election planned in June and Belgium due to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union at the beginning of July.

So there you have it. A geography lesson, French style, if you will.