FraneBucan

As a Genk fan, I want to thank many of you again for the Naples travel information I gathered via this forum & this thread. It certainly helped with the preparation and knowing what to expect. The San Paolo stadium was actually in a better state than I expected, even though the catering for example was just as shitty as what you guys had. And the atmosphere was zero, just like in the game you experienced. The main issue we faced (and so many clubs before us), was the bus transfer. Navigating the buses through Naples traffic was extremely difficult (we did 1h45 min for 6 km). Furthermore, as we approached the stadium, the police could no longer shield the buses from thugs on scooters, and several buses were attacked (one bus had shattered windows). Finally, and the biggest problem of all, not enough buses were provided. Genk had 1,200 away fans and only 8 buses (capacity of around 100 people per bus max) were provided. Over 150 fans simply missed the match. In the end, I knew what problems to expect and I took my precautions, so thanks again for the heads up. And good luck in the Europa League, you guys might be able to go all the way from what I've seen.

As a Genk fan - completely outclassed by Salzburg over 2 games. Wasn't even close. Very impressive, much more impressive than either Napoli or Liverpool - especially knowing that Salzburg plays in a relatively "weak" competition. How your team loses points in the Austrian league baffles me. How you got only 1 point out of 6 versus Napoli is also a mystery - Napoli was nothing compared to Salzburg when we played them. For those who traveled to Genk - hope you had a great time.

A little bit, but we've only had 1 game under Wolf so it's early to say. As for tonight, Wolf has certainly stated that he's going to strengthen the central axis of the field. The way Salzburg cut through the central defense & central midfield in September was like a nice hot knife through soft butter. I expect at least the butter to be less soft - but the knife may still be bloody hot & sharp ;-) Anyways, I hope we'll all see a good game tonight. Certainly for Genk this may be the last CL home game for yet another few years (and who knows, with the CL reform there might not be a CL game possible a couple of years from now), so I expect fireworks. As you know, Genk has never won a CL game in history, tonight might be the last chance to do so.

Thank you all for the replies. Naples seems a little less dangerous than I expected, great! The deplorable state of San Paolo is confirmed though - I especially liked the detailed stadium adventures of @Lurker and his son ;-) As for your trip to Genk, you shouldn't expect any security concerns. There's a tiny fraction of Genk fans (maybe 100 people) who may get into fights from time to time, but to my knowledge this is always with other groups looking for fights, never "normal" fans. There is some animosity towards Red Bull and how your club exemplifies modern football, but nothing that would lead to confrontation. I'm born and raised in Genk, but I'll be honest, it's a small and sleepy town. If you want to do some bar hopping with good beer & good atmosphere, I would advise staying in Hasselt or Maastricht. I'll paste the full fan guide below, but your biggest challenge will be getting to and from the stadium. Public transportation is extremely limited, so most visitors arrange taxis. Or your Supporter Liaison Officer might arrange buses to take you from & to Genk train station. Our stadium is fairly compact, but at least it's sold out and there'll be a good atmosphere - better than in Napoli by the sound of it. Salzburg completely annihilated Genk in the first game, but there's always hope ;-) Welcome to Genk – Fan Guide for Visiting Fans A big welcome from the Genk fans to all of you visiting our club. Travelling to support your team is one of the joys of European football. Over the years, fans from Madrid, Stuttgart, Basel, Cork, Lille, Athens, London & Rome have all visited Genk. The fans at www.blauwwit.be have decided to create this fan guide to make a visit to Genk as enjoyable as possible. Getting to Genk If you need to fly to reach Genk, you can choose between different airports. Maastricht airport (MST), Liège airport (LGG) and Eindhoven airport (EIN) are closest, but typically have limited flight options. You’ll probably have more options flying to Brussels (BRU) or Brussels-South (CRL), but don’t forget about Dusseldorf (DUS) or Dusseldorf-Weeze (NRN). Especially NRN and CRL have decent low-cost options – if you can fly to either of those it’s likely to be the cheapest option. On the other hand, BRU has the easiest public transport connection as you can just hop on a train to get closer to Genk (train tickets at www.belgianrail.be, when traveling by group please consider a Go-Pass or Rail-Pass). Trains from all other airports listed above are likely to be more complicated & expensive compared to BRU. Brussels is also a hub for international high-speed rail, such as the Thalys and Eurostar. Fans coming from France or England might consider that option. For fans traveling in from Germany or further East, the German ICE-network runs into Belgium as well, with Brussels and Liège as possible stops. Genk has a train station, as does Hasselt. Reaching Genk by car is very easy: Genk is right next to the E314 highway, which connects to Brussels in the west or Aachen in Germany in the east (both Brussels and Aachen are 45-55 min away). Genk has two exits on the E314 (Exits 31 & 32) and both exits are fairly close to the stadium. Visiting fans are encouraged to use Exit 31 and follow the stadium signage. Staying in Genk Genk itself has 65.000 inhabitants, but is also a city spread over multiple villages or ‘cités’, an urban spread that goes back to the mining history of the city. This means that the actual city center of Genk is slightly less developed compared to what you would expect from a city this size. Unfortunately, for visiting fans, this means somewhat limited options when it comes to hotels and bars. Bars of note in Genk are Bierpunt (large selection of Belgian beers), Wonderbar, Rootsbar, De Waerd, Belgiek, Camargue & Bar Bistro Boulevard. For larger groups Het Stadscafé would be recommended, they have a sizeable indoor area as well as a large outdoor seating area, right in the middle of the city centre (ie, good meeting point). There are 5 hotels in the city centre of Genk: - M-Hotel (****) - Green Hotel (***) - Hotel Ecu (***) - Carbon Hotel (****) - Hotel 't Hert (**) Despite a limited bar & hotel offering, the food options in Genk are pretty good – because of the mining history of Genk there are Belgian, Greek, Italian & Turkish restaurants aplenty. Especially the Italian cuisine in Genk is top notch. Great Italian restaurants in the city centre include La Botte, Dante, La Dolce Vita, Peppe's and Pastabar G&G. Great Greek restaurants are Olympia, Orestis, El Greco (all three of them on the Hoevenzavellaan), Pyrgos, Corfu and O Geros. Great Belgian restaurants are Het Gerechtje, Peper en Zout, Grand Café Relaxy, The Thrill and Kristalijn. Staying in Hasselt An alternative to Genk is staying at larger cities such as Brussels or Maastricht, but don’t discount Hasselt. Even though the size of Hasselt is similar to Genk, the city center is much more developed - all within walking distance. Hasselt has a larger offer of hotels for example, with popular choices in the city centre being: - Holiday Inn Express (***) - Holiday Inn (****) - Yup Hotel (**) - Hassotel (***) - Radisson Blu Hotel (****) Furthermore, Hasselt also has a brand new hostel (Hostel H) for the budget traveler, located right next to the train station. Hasselt also has a much more vibrant nightlife. From one of Belgium’s best know clubs (Versuz) to beer pubs such as De Egel or Hemelrijck, Hasselt has a lot to offer for one or more party nights. For larger groups of fans, meeting and gathering at the Dusart Square is advised. There are a couple of pubs next to eachother (Koestal, Export & Vangogh) with a combined outdoor seating area that can take hundreds of fans. You'll have Belgian beer, it's easy to meet up and great for singing or having a party. Hasselt also has about 50 good restaurants & snack bars to choose from – covering cuisines around the world. For larger groups, the following restaurants are recommended: The Century, Goei Goesting, Nostalgia, the Hassotel restaurant & Buon Eatalia. Getting to the stadium One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a visiting fan is actually getting to the Genk stadium (address: Stadionplein, Genk). There is almost no public transportation to speak of to and from the stadium, and walking from Genk city centre will take you over an hour. The club has addressed this by installing 5 bus lines to the stadium during almost all games (€3 bus ticket), but these lines comprise of just one bus. For example, for a 21h game, there will be one bus passing the Dusart Square in Hasselt at 19h30 you can grab. It will leave at the stadium again at 23h30, dropping you off at the same Dusart Square at midnight. More information on these bus lines can be found here http://www.krcgenk.be/nl/faq/1/bereikbaarheid (in Dutch). Almost all Genk fans have organized their transport privately, either by car-pooling or by hiring bus coaches. Some visiting fans (eg those from Cork) have been known to hire a local bus coach themselves, to pick them up in Hasselt and return them after the game (cost per person is believed to be €15). Some local bus coach companies: • Jacobs Transport • De Zigeuner Transport • Kroon Reizen • Heidebloem Autocars For smaller groups, pre-arranging a taxi is strongly advised. The below companies typically also have minivans for groups up to 8 people. There is no Uber coverage in Genk, so please work with a local taxi company such as: • Taxi V-cab • Taxi Peters • Taxi Midden-Limburg • Axi Taxi • Taxi HTM • HGT Taxi Beware, there are almost no pubs (or even buildings) around the stadium (De Kring, a pub, is in the vicinty of the stadium and the only notable exception to this), the Genk stadium is in a fairly remote location. Plan to be in the stadium for the game, but apart from the Goalmine museum and the club shop there is no reason to plan for any extra time in or around the grounds. When larger groups of fans have visited Genk in the past (eg Stuttgart, Basel & Rapid Vienna), local law enforcement has decided to offer bus transportation from a central location to the stadium & back - for example from and to the Genk train station. It is unclear which rules apply to have this sort of free, organized bus transport kick in - it will be up to your club & fan federation to apply for this treatment. At the stadium The Genk stadium (which is currently called the Luminus Arena under a sponsor agreement) officially holds 23.718 people. Maximum capacity for European games is slightly lower because the terraces behind the south goal are converted to a seating section. The stadium dates back to the former André Dumontstadion but has been completely rebuilt in different phases between 1999 and 2007. By Belgian standards, it is one of the nicest stadiums in the country. The away section is behind the north goal and (for small amounts of traveling fans) only comprises Section AA, an all-seating area with a capacity of around 450 seats. For larger groups, the similarly sized Section A (right underneath Section AA) will also be made available. For very large groups, the away section can be expanded to also contain Corner Club 3&4, for a total away capacity of just under 1.500 seats. The size of the away section will depend on club negotiations. Ticket prices for this away section vary between €20 and €50 - KRC Genk has a policy of asking exactly the same amount to visitors as the prices Genk fans have to pay for their away game. Typically tickets for the away section can NOT be bought at the stadium but are sold exclusively through the visiting club. A few words about mixing with the home fans. Typically, the Genk fans are friendly and will tolerate visiting fans in and around the stadium - especially when everyone behaves respectfully. Sadly, the tradition of 'mixing fans' is slowly disappearing in Belgium (most games in Belgium require police-escorted group travel and ban individual travel). In many cases travelling European fans will have some freedom on whether they want to mix with the home fans or not before or after the game, but local law enforcement will always default to fan separation. For example, if your fan federation is offered free bus travel to and from the stadium, these buses will typically drive into a totally secluded parking area behind the away section and you will be required to stay in this separate section before, during & after the game. As of August 2016, the Genk stadium is officially smoke-free, although this is hardly enforced. The beer served at the stadium is typically the excellent Cristal beer (€2,20 for 30cl). In the stadium, free WiFi is available. What to do in Genk/Hasselt Obviously you’re coming over for a game of football and between the drinking, partying, cheering & (some) sleeping you might not have any ‘spare time’. If you do book additional days on your trip, the Belgian cities of Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels & Ghent are very popular choices, but they are also hours away. Instead, why not try something local? For example C-Mine in Genk is a converted coalmine which acts as a culture & tourism hub for Genk. From exhibitions to guided tours and a real ‘C-Mine Expedition’, one can easily spend half a day here. C-Mine is about 4 kilometres from the stadium. The Genk stadium itself also has one specific and popular museum called Goalmine, showing the history of the club. Hasselt itself is popular for shopping (from fashion to food) but when you’re with a bunch of blokes there might be one specific museum of interest, the Jenever Museum. Jenever is a juniper-based grain spirit and very typical for Hasselt. This museum will give you an overview of jenever distilling across centuries, and a chance to try out some different flavours. Apart from jenever, Hasselt is also known for fashion, and therefore the Hasselt Fashion Museum might also be worth a visit. Between Hasselt and Genk, one can also find Bokrijk, Belgium's biggest open air museum (open from April to October). Bokrijk offers a unique view into life in the 18th & 19th century - and is one of the most visited attractions in Belgium. Feel free to use this guide and post it on other fan forums, but please always credit the source as www.blauwwit.be. Blauwwit.be is the biggest unofficial Genk fan forum - visiting fans are always welcome here in case of questions.

One more thing about Naples I forgot to ask - the San Paolo stadium may be a legendary stadium, but it is supposedly also a real shithole these days. For the away fans, there is no catering and whatever you do, avoid the toilets at all cost. True?

Hello and greetings from Genk. As your upcoming CL away game is in Genk, I wanted to point out that our user forum has a fan guide for visiting fans at https://www.blauwwit.be/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4460 (you'll need to register at the forum). If it's wanted & appropriate, I can also paste the guide here, plus answer any questions. Good luck for those coming to Belgium! From my side, I'm also interested in any tips for Naples. Naples will be my 10th European away trip after eg Vienna, Basel, Cork or Prague - and I've heard some horror stories from other visiting fans over the years: Napoli hooligans will not only search confrontation with other ultras, they'll attack anyone. As a visiting fan, you will be "hunted" for your entire stay in the city. The transfer to the stadium is notoriously bad - public transportation & taxis are risky for your personal safety, and the organized bus shuttle is a mess (with visiting fans arriving either way too early or way too late). The moment the shuttle buses drop you off after the game in the city is the highest risk moment of the whole trip - it is very likely that Napoli hooligans will use the darkness and the fact the police security ends to attack. So, did any of the above happen for you guys this week? Feel free to answer in German, my German is good enough to read, not to write.