By Andrew Warshaw
June 18 – Six teenage footballers and one of their fathers have been found guilty by a Dutch court of beating an amateur linesman to death in an incident that shocked the nation and even prompted the intervention of Fifa President Sepp Blatter.
The 50-year-old adult was sentenced to six years in jail, with five of the teenagers given the maximum sentence of two years in youth detention. The other will serve one year.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41, was set upon by his seven attackers after officiating at a youth match between his son’s team, SC Buitenboys, and Nieuw Sloten in Almere, near Amsterdam on December 2 last year. An eighth defendant was cleared of the killing but sentenced to 30 days’ detention for assaulting both Nieuwenhuizen and the SC Buitenboys goalkeeper.
Nieuwenhuizen, a father of three, walked away after the beating, but later collapsed and died in hospital the following day. The defense case claimed that a rare medical disorder contributed to Nieuwenhuizen’s death, but this was rejected by judges, who ruled it was as a result of “serious violence”
Dutch football is renowned for its productive youth system and the death caused widespread horror across a nation where parental participation in sport is hugely encouraged. All 33,000 amateur games were cancelled the following weekend while Blatter sent his condolences.