Ajax has decided not to go to court to enforce that it will not have to play against Feyenoord on Wednesday, but against FC Volendam. The club from Amsterdam considered legal action against the KNVB on Monday, but decided against it after consultation with FC Volendam.
Ajax says it has made that decision in the interests of the Eredivisie. However, the club will enter into ‘insistent’ consultation with the KNVB and the Eredivisie CV because it believes that the decision-making method ‘has not taken into account the legitimate interests of clubs’.
Ajax says that the regulations give the KNVB and the competition board far too much policy freedom, which would carry the ‘risk of arbitrariness and unmotivated decisions’.
As a result, Ajax and Feyenoord will play the last 35 minutes of the mutual match that was halted on Sunday from 2 p.m. without an audience in the Arena. The home match against FC Volendam scheduled for Wednesday evening will be played later.
Riot
The match between Ajax and Feyenoord was finally stopped after 55 minutes on Sunday with the Rotterdam team taking a 3-0 lead after fireworks were repeatedly thrown onto the field. The KNVB decided on Monday to play the match on Wednesday without an audience in the Johan Cruijff Arena.
“After an abandoned match, the professional football competition board determines what happens to the match. The basic principle is that the competition must be as fair as possible and that a match should therefore preferably be decided on the field,” the KNVB stated. “The match must then be resumed as soon as possible.”
Feyenoord initially demanded that the score of 0-3 should also be the final score. Feyenoord had little appetite to play out the last 35 minutes until November. The club believes there is a good chance that the Ajax players will then be better attuned to each other.
Ajax wanted to play out the remainder of De Klassieker in the first week of November, because there is no room earlier on the crowded calendar. FC Volendam also wanted to play football against Ajax on Wednesday. Chairman Jan Smit was clear in his opinion about shifting the remainder of Ajax – Feyenoord to Wednesday afternoon. “That means that the planned Ajax – Volendam match will be cancelled! Without consultation! That is competition distortion!”, Smit wrote on his own Instagram.