Rotterdam ready for Feyenoord inauguration, NS advises non-fans: postpone trip

Rotterdam is preparing for Feyenoord’s inauguration. Around noon, the team that became national champions yesterday will be honored at the city hall on Coolsingel. Tens of thousands of fans are expected; the first ones were already there around 6 a.m.

Feyenoord took their first national title since 2017 yesterday. Already during the match, a big party erupted in downtown Rotterdam. It lasted into the late evening and generally went well, according to police.

The Feyenoord players and staff will be received at the end of the morning in the Citizens’ Hall of the Rotterdam City Hall. There they are addressed by Mayor Aboutaleb. After a performance by Lee Towers, the selection then show themselves on the balcony to the fans on Coolsingel.

These fans can’t wait:

The official program is expected to end around 1:30 p.m.

Dutch Railways are urging travelers who are not coming to Rotterdam for the inauguration to postpone their trip. People who do come to Rotterdam for other reasons should prepare for very crowded trains, says NS spokesperson Willemijn Weinands.

NS expects the biggest crowds between 09:00 and 11:00 and between 14:00 and 16:00. To commuters or students, for example, the advice is to travel well before or after. “Otherwise, you will encounter a lot of enthusiastic Feyenoord fans on the train,” he said.

To cope with the crowds, NS is deploying extra and longer trains.

Feyenoord’s championship has also been celebrated outside Rotterdam, including by various supporters’ associations. In Baarn last night, fans had attached a banner of some 25 meters to the fences of Soestdijk Palace.

The action is a nod to King Willem-Alexander’s recent statement that he is an Ajax fan. On King’s Day, when the royal couple visited Rotterdam, Máxima was already handed a Feyenoord scarf. Willem-Alexander said then that there was only one team this year that deserved to be champion. “And that one is also my champion,” he said.