No AZ tonight in the final of the Conference League. In Prague, the Italian Fiorentina and West Ham United will compete against each other. AZ lost to the English team in the semifinals last month. We spoke with some Alkmaar supporters about the absence of AZ in the Czech Republic. “You understand that I wish Fiorentina the win, but that seems clear to me.”
“It hurts that AZ is not there,” says René Stoop disappointed. “I was in all European matches except for one match. And as an AZ supporter you do it all for this, because we don’t play finals that often.”
Purple shirt
Although AZ is not there tonight in Prague, AZ fan Anthony Wijman is just sitting in front of the TV. “I wish Fiorentina the victory. Just because of the beautiful shirt and the beautiful history. And I think Sofyan Amrabat is a very nice footballer. When he was still playing at FC Utrecht, I hoped he would come to AZ.” Still, Wijman looks at the final with mixed feelings, because of the incidents in the semi-final against West Ham United. “This left me with a very bad aftertaste. I therefore distance myself completely from the violence of supporters.”
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Alkmaar
“In our podcast we have also clearly spoken out about this,” Wijman continues his story. The inhabitant of Heerhugowaard makes the weekly podcast AZAlerts. “I am disappointed with the image that AZ has now received. As if we are a heavily criminal audience, which is of course not the case. AZ is a wonderful club, where nothing actually happened and we should not forget that.”
“Now these guys are sorry, but that is of course too late”
provoke
Yesterday and today, the necessary AZ hooligans appeared in court. There they were sentenced to prison and community service. Stoop: “I do not approve of this behavior and I am happy that they have been punished. Only I can understand the reaction of some AZ supporters. Since the English also attacked us in London and they were very provocative in the main stand in Alkmaar Showing flags in a neutral section is real not done in the supporters world.” Wijman also followed the news about the AZ hooligans closely, but it says something else. “Now these guys are sorry, but that is of course too late. I don’t expect it to happen again any time soon.”
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AZ supporters break out of their box – NH News
“I do think that AZ has not spoken enough with its own supporters, and in particular with the Ben Side Royals,” Wijman says critically to his club. “They indicated at an earlier stage that there were many problems in the stands, only AZ did little with it. I think that you prevented the situation against West Ham United.”
Drug dogs
“The majority of the Alkmaar supporters are of course not like that”, is Stoop’s opinion. The AZ supporter from Waarland has been supporting his club for over 45 years and would like to nuance the picture. “Most fans who are on the Ben-Side also behave well. Only there are a few who will behave differently in combination with alcohol and drugs. I advocate more drug dogs, that will scare many supporters off.”
The season is now over for AZ and Wijman has a reasonably positive feeling about this season. “I’ve seen great matches in Europe. The confrontations with Lazio Roma and at home against Anderlecht were unforgettable. Really beautiful football with a great atmosphere. On the other hand, there could have been more, both in the KNVB cup and competition.” AZ finished fourth in the Eredivisie and failed in the quarterfinals against FC Utrecht for the national cup.
Fiorentina – West Ham United starts at 9 p.m.
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