After a hard-fought victory in De Kuip, Ajax reached the cup final against Feyenoord yesterday. But after the final whistle, it was mainly about ‘the object’, probably a lighter, which was thrown onto the field from the stands and hit Davy Klaassen’s head. “We had been waiting for a while for things to go wrong”
Images of Klaassen’s bloodied head soon went viral. That’s how they turned up at the Italian Gazetta dello Sport, that it is about ‘absurd scenes about’. In Argentina, too, people write about the match: “What should have been a football party has been completely ruined,” writes TyC, sports.
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Our southern neighbors also watched the game. Het Nieuwsblad talks about ‘a pure war in Rotterdam’: “A semi-final that was riddled with controversy. The most striking thing is that Klaassen had to be replaced by Brobbey barely two minutes after the restart. The Ajax midfielder looked dazed, possibly by the blow.”
The incident also provoked a reaction from FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. “There is absolutely no place for violence in football. Events like this have no place in our sport or society. Without exception, all players must be able to play games safely. I expect the responsible authorities to ensure that this is respected.”
‘Shocking’ and ‘outrageous’
One of those ‘authorities’, Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, called the event “A nasty episode in Dutch football.” “I find it extremely shocking that some people are overcome by emotions, or I don’t know what, and then proceed to such actions,” Aboutaleb said yesterday at Rijnmond. “This is incredibly harmful to Feyenoord and Dutch football.”
“You see more and more that stuff is thrown on the field,” says Lars van Eijden, who in The Pantelic Podcast discusses the developments at Ajax several times a week. “Not only at matches of Ajax, Feyenoord or in the Classic. In fact, it had been waiting for a while for things to go wrong.”
Van Eijden finds it ‘outrageous’ that things are now really going wrong. “This is an absolute new low point in the history of the Classic. And there were many more lighters on the floor. Very painful that you can no longer play a normal football match like this.”
Signal
“I was also real straight away done with that match,” says Van Eijden. “John Heitinga does a good job by bringing the players in right away. I expected her not to come out again.”
Van Eijden had found that a strong signal. “Yesterday I heard Klaassen say: ‘Then they win’. But I do not agree with that. I was at that one match against AZ in 2011 with Hooligan Wesley. Then I was a boy of 15, 16 and after a I was definitely not the winner. If you had sent that Kuip home yesterday, they would not have been the winner either.”
Because there was eventually played through, Ajax is now in the final of the cup tournament. Van Eijden doesn’t think it’s a problem that the match is in the Kuip. “Finals in the Kuip are special. You always want to play them as Ajax. Against PEC, even if you lost big. The final against Willem II was also fantastic. And as an Ajax supporter I will never be in the Kuip again. This is always the ideal opportunity to go. I always like it. Besides, at least we have something to look forward to this season.”
Van Halst
Whether Klaassen has acquired a new hero status among Ajax fans with his head injury? “Of course you have the example of Jan van Halst who is on the field with a bloodied turban,” recalls Van Eijden. “When Van Halst walks through Amsterdam today, he is still reminded of that. I think Klaassen’s images will also be remembered, but I also think that Klaassen was already an Ajax hero. Maybe this reinforces it a little little, but not much.”