Sports World Reacts To Brussels Bombings: Belgian National Soccer Team Says ‘Football Is Not Important Today’

UPDATE: 2:41 p.m. EDT — Former NBA star and current NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Motombo was at the Brussels airport during Tuesday’s bombings that killed more than 30 people. Motombo said he was unharmed in the attack.

He posted to Facebook, “God is good. I am in Brussels Airport with this craziness. I am fine.”

Original story:

As Brussels was reeling Tuesday in the wake of terrorist bombings that killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more, the sports world, including numerous Belgian star athletes, responded to the harrowing news. Vincent Kompany, captain of the Belgian national soccer team, said he was “horrified and revolted” by the attacks and that he wished for “Brussels to act with dignity,” according to posts on his Twitter timeline.

“We are all hurting, yet we must reject hate and its preachers,” Kompany wrote.

Details about the attacks carried out in the early morning local time were still emerging. About 8 a.m. local time, shots were fired at Brussels’ Zaventem airport before two bombs were detonated. Soon after, a third explosion hit the city’s Maelbeek metro station near Brussels’ European Union buildings.

Dieumerci Mbokani, a Congolese striker on English Premier League team Norwich City, was at Zaventem airport during the attacks.

Mbokani “was unharmed but shaken by the tragic events at the airport,” the club said in a statement, adding the player was back with his family and not commenting further at this time.

Following the attacks, the Belgian national team canceled practice for the day, and it remains to be decided if the squad will play in its scheduled match against Portugal next Tuesday. The team announced on its Twitter page that “our thoughts are with the victims. Football is not important today. Training cancelled.”

Portugal’s soccer association released a statement that said, “The Federacao Portuguesa de Futebol is in touch with its Belgian counterpart and the Portuguese, Belgian and international authorities, in view of the events of today and the anticipated game for Tuesday next week,” according to Sky Sports.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Jan Vertonghen, also a member of the Belgian national team, expressed disbelief at the attacks, while the squad’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois posted to Twitter that his “thoughts are with the victims and their family.”

Brad Huff, a U.S. cyclist, said via Vocativ that he spent the night before in or near the Brussels airport. Brazilian-Belgian basketball player Sebastien Bellin, who played at Oakland University in Michigan, was injured in the bombing attacks, according to multiple reports. Greg Kampe, the head men’s basketball coach at Oakland University, posted that Bellin was going in for a second surgery after being injured.

The Belgian national soccer team Twitter page has collected and posted responses from its players and others, including that of Belgian FC Barcelona star Thomas Vermaelen, who wrote, “I can’t believe what happened this morning. My thoughts are with the victims, their family, friends and loved ones.”