September 26 – Ajax and Feyenoord will play out the remaining 35 minutes of their Eredivisie encounter on Wednesday behind closed doors. Their match had to be abandoned following crowd disturbances at the weekend.
Last Sunday, the referee halted the game when the Rotterdam club led 3-0 after flares were repeatedly thrown on to the pitch. The Dutch FA (KNVB) took the decision to complete the match tomorrow with the scheduled Ajax – Volendam match to be shifted to another date.
Feyenoord demanded that the match should be awarded to the club with a 3-0 final score. Ajax and Volendam, angry that their fixture scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed, had initially indicated they’d fight the KNVB decision in court. Ajax has however refrained from taking legal action but questioned the KNVB’s decision-making process nonetheless.
“After seeking advice and subsequently consulting with FC Volendam, Ajax believes that going to court is not in the interest of the Premier League,” said Ajax.
“The club will, however, enter into intensive consultation with the KNVB and the ECV because the legitimate interests of clubs have not been taken into account in the decision-making method and the regulations give far too great a degree of policy freedom to the KNVB and the board, which increases the risk of arbitrariness and unmotivated decisions.”
Volendam chairman Jan Smit wrote that moving his club’s match without consultation distorted competition.
Sunday’s abandonment was followed by rioting outside the stadium with a minority of fans throwing stones and bottles at the riot police. They also caused damage to the main entrance of the stadium.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsma said that things have got out of hand, but ruled out prohibiting the match in the future. She said that “there should be proper stadium searches, nets should be hung, but stadium bans, if necessary for life, should also be issued and they should also be enforced.”
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