FC Groningen-SC Heerenveen is such a game of football to look forward to. Excited Teun (16) and two friends cycle to the Euroborg stadium on 19 March. But before the referee gives the final whistle, Teun is already at home. He threw a wad of paper.
He throws it. Teun is sitting on the edge of the field. That provocative cheer from the striker of SC Heerenveen right in front of his nose, he is done with it. On a whim, Teun grabs the flyer, which contains the instructions for the atmosphere action, makes a ball of it and throws it. It lands between billboarding and the sideline, meters from the partying Sydney van Hooijdonk.
Teun stuffs his frustration about the umpteenth defeat of FC Groningen into that half A4 that Sunday. “I actually immediately thought: that was not very smart.” It turns out.
Van Hooijdonk scores in the 40th minute. Just before the break, when Teun wants to take a selfie in a dead moment of play, he sees three stewards behind him on the screen of his mobile: “Would you like to come along?”
Teun then has no idea what hangs over his head. The KNVB, the bailiff, the municipality, he gets them all on his roof.
Teun sees a lot of cups of beer and wads going towards the field
On his 15th birthday, Teun receives a season ticket from FC Groningen. From the North stand, where the Z-side is located, he sees a lot of beers and wads of beer heading towards the field. He knows someone who hurled one of those six-hole beer-carrying cartons at the feet of a linesman.
It’s misconduct, it’s inexcusable. And the KNVB has tightened the rules since Ajax player Davy Klaassen was hit by a lighter from a Feyenoord supporter in De Kuip in Rotterdam at the beginning of April and walked off the field with a bleeding head. If something is now thrown at a player or someone from the referee, the referee will stop the game. If it happens a second time, he blows his whistle for good.
This is also the case on April 22 at FC Groningen-NEC after a boy (18) throws a cup of beer onto the field. After 20 minutes it’s done, everyone can go home. And during FC Zwolle-FC Dordrecht, an 8-year-old boy and his father are expelled from the stadium after the child throws a cup at the field.
Those stricter rules do not yet apply during the northern derby with Teun’s wad, but the teenager is immediately expelled from the stadium. He cycles back home with his friends and sees on TV how the game completely derails at the end of the second half. A man storms the field and threatens stewards. His son slaps FC player Jetro Willems, who tries to calm down the boiling supporters.
The afternoon that started so beautifully with an atmospheric action in the 12th minute, ends in a tumultuous rotten mood.
‘I felt like a bit of a loser’
Teun looks at his feet when he walks with the stewards up the stairs to the ring just before half time. He hears booing. Wherever he stands with the stewards, everyone can see him. He must give his name, age, address and ID number. A man shouts at the stadium guards: “This is not normal man, he just throws a wad!”
That moment when Teun is taken from the stands was not pleasant. “I felt a bit one loser because I threw that gag, especially since I know better myself. It was also quite intimidating with three stewards. I was just calm. I thought: I’ll cooperate as best I can, otherwise I’ll get into even more problems. When that angry man got involved, I understood that the booing was not for me.”
When he has to leave the stadium, Teun asks how things will continue. You can expect an official warning anyway, the stewards say. And it becomes official.
It begins with three identical letters from the FC, dated April 3. One for Teun, one for his parents and a registered copy. It states that his ‘behavior’ during the Groningen-Heerenveen match is ‘inadmissible’ and ‘reprehensible’. That the club reports this ‘according to agreements’ to the KNVB, that it imposes ‘the sanction’ and that until then he is not welcome in the stadium.
Oily and not to be approved. But could the approach have been different?
Teun’s parents certainly do not approve of their son’s behavior. They think it’s oily. But his father Marcel does wonder why the FC immediately sends Teun’s case to the KNVB. Teun is just 16 years old, has no reputation as a ringleader. Why has the club not had a conversation with Teun about his behavior? Couldn’t the football organization come up with a suitable punishment? Cleaning the stadium or something?
FC Groningen: ‘No conversation with throwers’
FC Groningen confirms that Teun’s case was immediately reported to the KNVB. “Those are the rules when someone throws something at a player.” At least if we manage to find out who threw. The club then informs the football association about the identity of the thrower and what exactly he has done.
Teun’s father would have liked to have seen the FC handle the matter itself and at least enter into a conversation with his son. But the club does not do that because “the misconduct is of such a nature that FC Groningen will immediately report it to the KNVB.”
The club is not involved in Teun’s punishment, which is determined by the KNVB on the basis of a special guideline for stadium bans. FC Groningen can also handle misconduct itself if someone violates the house rules.
The club also does not send all throwers to the KNVB. A minor boy who throws a bottle on the field earlier this year is being expelled from the stadium, but has not heard from the FC or the KNVB until now.
Marcel contacts FC Groningen, but is told that this is the procedure. If someone throws an object or liquid at a player, the whole trade goes to the football association.
More than two weeks later, when he is busy putting a bicycle chain on his son’s bicycle, a bailiff enters the driveway. He hands over the judgment of the KNVB. “Whether I was Teun’s parent or caregiver. I stood there with my hands covered in grease.”
Teun goes white when he reads the verdict. “I thought: this is a joke.”
A national stadium ban of one and a half years. Plus a fine of 250 euros plus the costs of the bailiff: 335.44 euros in total. At matches of all Dutch professional football organizations and matches of the Dutch national team, also abroad, ‘the requisition may not stay in or around the stadium or access roads before, during and after a football match.’ So Teun can also forget about the European Championship in Germany next year.
KNVB: ‘Teun’s punishment doubled’
,,Teun’s penalty is high because he threw towards a player. Then the duration of the stadium ban will be doubled,” said a spokesman for the KNVB.
Throwing an object and/or liquid is between 9 and 18 months. How much punishment you get depends, for example, on the projectile that goes towards the field. If Teun had aimed for the corner flag, he would have received 9 months. But because he threw to Heerenveenspits Sydney van Hooijdonk, his sentence is 18 months.
The football association imposes the stadium ban through civil law and receives information such as camera images and statements from FC Groningen in this case. The misconduct and associated punishments can be found on the website of the KNVB.
It is not usual for supporters who violate the rules to be heard by the union, says the KNVB. You can protest against the decision by lodging an appeal. Teun’s father does that too.
Football lawyer Christian Visser from Amsterdam said earlier in this newspaper that supporters who receive a stadium ban often do not feel heard.
“It is difficult to get right at the KNVB. Supporters have nowhere to tell their story. It asks something from the KNVB, but it would be better if some kind of session is made in Zeist, where the football association is located, for imposing a stadium ban.”
“I expected to be fined. I thought maybe a six month ban for Groningen and a 150 euro fine. But it’s just three times as bad.”
It’s not done yet. Another letter lands on the mat. An environmental ban for the Euroborg, sender by the municipality of Groningen. Three hours before, during and three hours after each match, the area around the Green Cathedral at the Europapark is off-limits to Teun.
‘It seemed like I was a dangerous criminal’
“I was very shocked by the letter from the bailiff, but the one from the municipality…! It seemed like I was a dangerous criminal.” The municipality writes that Teun ‘has affected the security situation in the stadium in such a negative way that the safety of visitors and players has been seriously endangered’.
The municipality writes, among other things, based on camera images. Could the official handling the case not know that Teun was throwing paper? And also from which section that crammed-up atmosphere action flyer, placed on the seats by the football club itself, fluttered onto the field? In any case, not from the North stand where the hard core resides.
But in the letter it seems as if Teun is a seasoned hooligan. The municipality considers the environmental ban appropriate for him because of ‘your role and involvement with the hard core of supporters’. The municipality also writes that the ban is ‘proportional’ because he walked onto the field. Something doesn’t seem quite right here. Yes, someone walked onto the field that day, but it wasn’t Teun.
Municipality of Groningen: ‘Teun case is still ongoing’
The mayor, Koen Schuiling in Groningen, determines whether a supporter will also receive an environmental ban in addition to a stadium ban. He does this ‘to prevent and combat public order disturbances’.
The municipality does not want to explain why the clot that Teun threw in the stadium would have disrupted public order because his case is ‘still ongoing’. “This is a proposed decision, people can still submit an opinion against it. That happened in this case,” says spokesperson Hans Coenraads.
The municipality bases a stadium ban such as that of Teun on information from the KNVB. A total of six visitors to the Groningen-Heerenveen match on March 19 received an environmental ban according to the municipalities.
The atmosphere in the Euroborg is not good this season. During the match against SC Cambuur from Leeuwarden in January, a crowd enters the field. At a home game and an away game, FC supporters set off fireworks. The match in which Teun launched his wad of paper was the duel between that field runner and his underage son who beat Jetro Willems. Even such a low point. Father Marcel thinks that Teun ‘ended up in the wrong pile’, that of the hooligans who ruined things in the second half.
He won’t let it go. He lodges an appeal with the KNVB against what he considers to be an excessively high sentence. And he also objects to the municipality. “In the letter from the KNVB, they talk about misconduct and damaging the reputation and interests of football. I think that’s rather serious accusations against a 16-year-old child. They are not in proportion to what Teun has actually done.”
Teun is in it. “I really understand that what I have done is not okay. I’ve been going to FC Groningen all my life, I’ve been for that club all my life. This punishment feels unfair. Even though they will soon be participating in the Kitchen Champion Division, you still have to support your club, even if things are going badly. I just think it’s great to be at the game, the atmosphere, the singing. Now it has been ruined for a year and a half with a wad of paper.”
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Teun and Marcel are not the real names of the persons in this article. Their real first and last names are known to the editors. We have chosen to use fictitious names to prevent Teun from always being found online as someone with a stadium ban.