KNVB distinguishes between what supporters are allowed to throw: ball is allowed, beer is not

Should the referee have temporarily stopped the game between FC Twente and FC Utrecht Sunday afternoon when a ball was thrown onto the pitch from the stands?

Yesterday, at the duel between FC Twente and FC Utrecht, play continued as usual after a ball was thrown onto the field from the stands where FC Utrecht supporters were sitting.

“This was also done with the aim of interrupting a promising FC Twente attack,” RTV Oost writes.

According to KNVB spokesman Daan Schippers, there is a clear difference between a soccer ball and a lighter or a mug of beer. “These are objects with which players can be injured,” the KNVB spokesman explained. “Things that are not used to play football with.”

According to Schippers, the moment a ball goes from the field into the stands, it cannot wait for the game to be resumed until it is returned. In both cases the ball went around between the many hands of the FC Utrecht supporters on the Bunnikside yesterday afternoon, before it came down.

“It’s very annoying,” Schippers acknowledged, pointing to the behavior of FC Utrecht supporters, but he said it is not something that can be prevented. “It will also happen more often, but a soccer is clearly not the object we are referring to in the measures we have proclaimed. It becomes different when, for example, full beer mugs, lighters or coins are thrown toward the field.”