22 arrests around Klassieker, Feyenoord keeps Vak Z closed against AS Roma
NOS Football––Customized
Twenty-two people were arrested around Feyenoord’s cup match against Ajax, including for throwing objects and setting off fireworks. Police say.
In addition, Feyenoord itself issued stadium bans to three supporters for violating house rules. More possible rioters are expected to be identified.
Two more Feyenoord home games are scheduled over the next eight days. The incidents around and during Wednesday’s Klassieker in Rotterdam have given director Dennis te Kloese considerable food for thought.
“We are going to properly analyze and evaluate how we can prevent this and how we deal with this,” the director spoke shortly after the cup match with Ajax, marred by disturbances. “So that this kind of thing doesn’t happen in the future.”
The incident at De Kuip is not an isolated one. Check out all the incidents from the past 12 months on Dutch soccer fields below:
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
-
NOS
Twice a full Kuip: in the premier league championship race against RKC Waalwijk and in the quarterfinals of the Europa League against AS Roma. After Wednesday, that idea instills more fear than delight in the power of a twelfth man, as the passionate cheers are often described.
Box Z empty
A first intervention has already been made: Feyenoord will keep part of the stands empty during next week’s game with AS Roma. It concerns Box Z, which houses some 2,000 seats and from which objects were thrown onto the pitch Wednesday night.
This is extremely damaging to us as an organization, extremely damaging to the image of our supporters and extremely damaging to our team.
Ajacied Davy Klaassen was hit on the head by a lighter in the process, a new low in the series of incidents that seem to be piling up in Dutch stadiums.
‘Particularly damaging’
Te Kloese obviously does not have a good word to say about the unsavory course of events during the semi-final at home. “This is particularly damaging to us as an organization, particularly damaging to the image of our supporters and particularly damaging to our team,” he lists. “We are grateful to Ajax for wanting to play on.”
Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yesilgöz could well have imagined that the match would have been stopped for good. “How far does it have to go?” she wonders aloud. “If you go on like this, you will go to a setting where home supporters can’t either.”
Watch reactions from Ahmed Aboutaleb, premier league director Jan de Jong and Jan Bluyssen here:
The conditions at De Kuip did not go unnoticed abroad either.
The German newspaper Bild spoke of “blood shame,” La Gazzetta dello Sport spoke of “absurd incidents,” and Australia’s FOX Sports concluded that “the greatest rivalry in Dutch soccer is once again reaching a new low.”
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb indicated that addressing the problem is more complicated than many people think. An emergency meeting between soccer federation KNVB and club officials will take place on Thursday.
“So you see again that this Klassieker is very tense. And the discussion very complicated,” he looked back on a deplorable evening. “It’s the bankruptcy of the sport when at the hands of bystanders the athletes have to leave the field.”
