‘Nothing to do with sports’

Anyone who thought they could read in the Dagblad van het Noorden a detailed report of – the nine minutes of – FC Groningen against Ajax will be deceived. The newspaper refuses to put a match report in the paper after Sunday’s suspended match.

“On this sports page should have been the match report of FC Groningen – Ajax. But with sports the events in the Euroborg yesterday afternoon had nothing at all to do,” writes the newspaper on the largely empty area where normally the match is written about. Reference is made to the news pages, where the unrest is written about.

In the sixth minute yesterday, smoke bombs were thrown onto the field from a section of Groningen supporters. Also, an angry fan walked onto the field with a coarse text towards the board. The match was temporarily suspended, another blot on the already terrible season of FC Groningen, which was relegated from the premier league last week.

After the break, things went from bad to worse. A second salvo of fireworks and smoke bombs followed in the ninth minute, and then it was clear: the match was stopped. And not for the first time this season, as the home game against NEC also had to be called off.

It has since been announced that the match against Ajax will be played tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m., without an audience.