Time and again, homophobic chants sounded in Deventer on Sunday. Why was no action taken?

The afternoon started with a friendly gesture. PEC Zwolle captain Bram van Polen received red and yellow flowers from Go Ahead Eagles coach René Hake on Sunday, for his 500th official game for the club. Van Polen thought it was nice that the rival from Deventer did this just before the often heated IJsselderby.

It cannot prevent sentiment from changing quickly. Shortly after kick-off, a cup with liquid (probably beer) is thrown towards Van Polen, causing the match to come to a standstill. During that interruption, after about three minutes, the following is heard for the first time: ‘Bram van Polen is gay’. Repetitive. First softly, then louder and louder. The chants continue for twenty seconds. The singing is clearly evident from the audio recording of broadcaster ESPN, listened to by NRC.

It won’t be the last time. When Van Polen commits a serious foul in the 58th minute and receives a yellow card, the same chant sounds again from the fanatical B-side (where children are also standing), and even louder. Now fifteen seconds, and at least five times the same sentence. Shortly after the final whistle, when Go Ahead has barely forced a draw, the chorus can be heard again for fifteen seconds.

This wouldn’t happen again

This is exactly what all 34 professional clubs in the Netherlands wanted to eliminate before this season. Professional football unanimously opposes ‘homophobic’ chants and takes measureswas the headline a message on the website of the KNVB football association, July last year. “Intervention had to be taken if visitors use the word gay as a swear word in chants” towards a player or referee. The clubs decided this after a season in which PSV player Xavi Simons was often the target of this type of chant, which had been regularly heard in all kinds of stadiums for years anyway.

Where nothing was done for a long time, from this season onwards the stadium speaker must give a warning about homophobic chants, the KNVB announced in the summer. Provided they are aimed at “an individual, if they are massive, repetitive and/or prolonged”. If the chant continues after a second warning, the match will be temporarily halted. Perpetrators can receive a stadium ban of up to 18 months.

More than six months after their introduction, with 437 matches played in the Eredivisie and First Division, the measures appear to have little significance in practice. No warning has yet been given, let alone a match stopped, says the John Blankenstein Foundation, which is committed to acceptance of gays and lesbians in sport. It is unclear how often homophobic chants are heard in stadiums.

Why was no intervention made during Go Ahead against PEC Zwolle? The responsibility for combating verbal abuse lies with the home club – Go Ahead in this case. The club’s security organization only noticed the chants in the 58th minute. “But they were so short-lived that no announcement was made by the stadium speaker in consultation with the fourth official,” says Jan Willem van Dop, director of Go Ahead. A warning might “just add fuel to the fire,” causing the singing to “continue longer,” he said.

The KNVB observer wrote in his report that the chants lasted about fifteen seconds, says a spokesperson for the association. According to him, it is not logical that – after the singing has first been established and then stopped – the stadium speaker is instructed. “You are not going to announce: boys, what you just shouted, you are not allowed to do that anymore.”

Why not? The KNVB spokesperson: “You want it to stop, you don’t want to arouse it. You take that chance by drawing extra attention to it.”

Persist for a long time

Only when the chants persist for a “long-term” should action be taken, say both Go Ahead and the KNVB. “Not fifteen seconds, but minutes,” said the union spokesperson. How long exactly has not been “exactly” determined.

The KNVB cannot confirm that it was a pattern on Sunday – shortly after kick-off, halfway through and afterwards. Their observer noted only two moments. “It is not always possible to hear everything clearly everywhere in the stadium.”

Earlier this season, chants from FC Twente fans in a match at Heracles Almelo certainly lasted a minute. It sounded repetitively: “They are the gays, yes the gays, they are the gays from Almelo.” No action was taken there either, because according to Heracles it stopped in time. A few days later, FC Twente director Paul van der Kraan called on fans to “never again” sing such songs.

The fact that the chants must continue for a long time (which rarely happens) before action is taken makes the package of measures an empty shell, says chairman Karin Blankenstein of the John Blankenstein Foundation. “If it happens once, it already sends the wrong signal to the people involved.”

Coming out

The behavior of fans and the macho culture on and around the fields make it difficult for homosexual footballers to come out, according to previous research by the Foundation and the Association of Contract Players. No male Dutch professional has ever come out of the closet before.

Bram van Polen previously spoke out in favor of acceptance of gays in football. In an interview with the Gay newspaper he said that PEC Zwolle is “the ultimate place” “to come out of the closet”. “We will fully support you.”

He now says no NRC that he heard the chants clearly on Sunday. He didn’t go to the referee to say anything about it because it didn’t hurt him personally. “Suppose I have a boy in my team who likes men, and chants are heard about it: I would mind that and then I would report it.”

The KNVB cannot yet say whether the professional football prosecutor will start a preliminary investigation into the match. The measures will be evaluated after this season.

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