8-year-old boy evicted from PEC Zwolle stadium after throwing cup on field

The PEC Zwolle-FC Dordrecht and MVV Maastricht-Jong AZ matches in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie were stopped Friday night. In both cases, the referee brought everyone inside because objects were being thrown onto the pitch.

In Zwolle, the game was halted in the first half because a cup was thrown onto the pitch when a Dordrecht player wanted to take a corner kick. The culprit turned out to be an 8-year-old boy. The child was sent out of the stadium with his father.

Things went wrong at MVV about ten minutes before the end when the score was 1-2. Supporters of the home club threw cups onto the pitch just after Jong AZ had scored.

The KNVB introduced stricter measures after the semi-final between Feyenoord and Ajax in the cup tournament, in which Ajacied Davy Klaassen was hit on the head by a lighter thrown from the crowd.

The new rules mean that the first time objects are thrown onto the pitch, players and referees will go inside briefly. On a second occasion, the game will be stopped.

If a referee or player is hit by an object from the crowd, the game will be stopped immediately.

Last Saturday, things also went wrong at FC Groningen-NEC. In that match, an assistant referee was hit by a cup from the crowd.

Last Sunday’s match between FC Twente and Sparta should also have been stopped when supporters threw objects toward Spartan Shurandy Sambo in injury time.

Referee Joey Kooij, however, found that the player had behaved provocatively and gave Sambo a yellow card for that. A day later, the KNVB reported that that card was justified, but that the match should also have been stopped.