A large group of alleged hooligans must answer to court this week, because they allegedly participated in football riots at the NAC stadium last year. It concerns 26 suspects, of whom two are minors.
The Public Prosecution Service is prosecuting them for, among other things, open violence and destruction. Those charges are quite different. Dozens of officers filed charges against rioters. According to them, there was also assault or even attempted murder.
The first eight men will be tried on Monday. The others will follow on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
force gate
NAC supporters were outraged on Sunday, May 23, 2021 at the lost play-off match against NEC (1-2). As a result, not the people from Breda, but the people from Nijmegen were promoted to the Eredivisie.
Due to the corona measures in force at the time, only 2500 spectators were allowed in. A large group of supporters also gathered outside the Rat Verlegh Stadium. After the game, they tried to enter the stadium by forcing a gate. The riot police could barely prevent this, but had to pay a lot of money.
Heavy fireworks and pavement tiles
Hooligans attacked the police. They threw fences, stones, bicycles, bottles and heavy fireworks. People took paving stones out of the ground, broke them and threw them at the riot police. Mortar fireworks are also said to have been shot horizontally in the direction of the police.
Several officers were cornered and injured. One of them broke a hand, others suffered bruises. The damage to police buses was also considerable.
Black page
After the riots, the municipality of Breda and NAC spoke of ‘a black page’. “The violence went beyond all boundaries,” they wrote in a joint statement. “This had nothing to do with football and nothing to do with supporting your club. This behavior does not do justice to the name of NAC Breda, the real supporters and the city of Breda.”
Police arrested six men during the riot. After that, the police published photos of the rioters on the internet. After that, a few came forward.