After an interruption of more than 40 minutes, many fireworks were set off again when the game resumed. Ajax supporters wanted to commemorate a deceased fan in this way.
The Johan Cruijf Arena was almost literally on fire, and not for the first time this season. At the beginning of this month, Ajax’s home match against Heerenveen was also interrupted because fans of Ajax’s F-Side set off a lot of fireworks.
Tribute to deceased Ajax fan
It was a tribute to the deceased Patrick ‘Paddy’ Overeem. He was a prominent member of the F-Side, the hard core of Ajax. He died at the end of October in a boating accident in the Western Docklands in Amsterdam. Players and supporters previously also paid tribute with banners and shirts.
It happened again against Groningen. Once again it was a tribute to a deceased supporter. Referee Bas Nijhuis stopped the match for the first time. After half an hour the smoke had cleared and the main players made a second attempt to play the match. But after a few seconds the time had come again. The match was then permanently stopped.
Bas Nijhuis furious
“We have just had discussions and what is happening here is not possible,” Nijhuis responded after the first shutdown in front of the camera. ESPN. “Torchlight in the profession is too crazy for words, but if you want to hit your own players in the eyes, you have to continue like this.”
“We will try to go outside again when the smoke has cleared for the VAR and the mess has been cleaned up. If it happens again, there will be other consequences. You can guess what that is. Then we will go inside. If you as a supporter want to harm your own club, you should continue with this charade. It’s really scandalous. Shots are being fired on the field. This has nothing to do with football anymore,” said Nijhuis.
Nijhuis did not want to restart the match for the second time. “I don’t want to take that responsibility,” he said. “I don’t think it’s safe like this, but the mayor of Amsterdam still has to give permission. Because she is responsible for safety outside the stadium.” Less than a minute later, the match speaker announced that the match had been definitively stopped. It is not yet known how and when the match will be played.
Ajax: apologies to anyone who was wronged
Financial director Shashi Baboeram Panday has apologized on behalf of Ajax to everyone who was affected by the definitive abandonment of the match against FC Groningen. “As Ajax we find this scandalous,” he said at ESPN.
The fan in question is 29 years old. There were fears that fireworks would be set off again in the 29th minute. Referee Bas Nijhuis resumed the game after more than 40 minutes, but after a few seconds many burning torches again appeared behind one of the goals in the stadium.
“We emphatically distance ourselves from this misconduct,” said Panday, who is also in charge of security matters. “We knew that a well-known fan had died for the second time in a short time. At the beginning of this month, our match against Heerenveen was stopped because there were also a lot of fireworks for a deceased fan. We had taken extra measures, but that did not have sufficient effect.”
“We will of course study the CCTV footage to try to identify perpetrators and also investigate in other ways who are responsible,” Panday said. “If this leads to the identification of perpetrators, we will take appropriate measures. We are in continuous consultation with the Johan Cruijff ArenA to prevent such cases. We will continue with this.”
Read everything about Ajax-FC Groningen this Sunday afternoon below