ANPPolice at De Kuip before Feyenoord-Ajax on January 22 last year
NOS News•today, 16:52•Adjusted today, 17:53
The match between Feyenoord and Ajax in Rotterdam will not take place on Sunday due to the announced police action. This has been decided by the municipality of Rotterdam.
Mayor Aboutaleb says that the municipality, police and justice have taken the decision to ban the match “unanimously”. “The safety of the players, but also of the public, cannot be sufficiently guaranteed without the use of the police”, he says.
The police announced yesterday that they would not be present at the Klassieker in de Kuip as part of a campaign to preserve early retirement. The police have been fighting for this for months. According to the National Police Action Centre, there are no signals from politics that they are working on “a decent early retirement”.
Only fans of the home team would be in the stadium for the match. Due to incidents in the past, away fans have not been welcome at matches between Ajax and Feyenoord for years. That this is no guarantee for a peaceful match was proven last year at Ajax-Feyenoord in Amsterdam. Riots broke out after the match was stopped due to fireworks on the pitch.
The match between Ajax and Feyenoord will now be played at a different time. It is not yet known when the clubs will meet.
‘This is not what football is for’
The KNVB has announced that it is not happy with the police actions during football matches and the ban on Sunday. “Football is now being used as a means and that says a lot about the impact of football. But of course that is not what football is intended for,” the football association said in a reaction.
The union says it hopes that the police and the government will soon sit down to negotiate early retirement. They fear that the competition will be jeopardized if the police actions continue as they are.
“In that case, football and all football fans, especially considering their own efforts for safe stadiums, will be disproportionately affected by the actions for early retirement for police officers,” the association said.
Feyenoord and Ajax also say they are disappointed that Sunday’s match will not go ahead. Feyenoord says it is a shame that football is once again being used to enforce matters in which they are not a party. They do say they understand that the mayor is canceling the match for safety reasons. Ajax regrets “that football is the victim of this case”.
Early retirement
The police have been campaigning for early retirement for months. The police actions began in May with issuing fewer fines, closing police stations to the public and noise actions with sirens.
This month, Eredivisie matches were used as an opportunity to take action. This did not previously lead to cancellations, because these were not so-called risk matches.
Last week, GroenLinks-PvdA and SP advocated retaining the current Early Retirement Scheme (RVU) for people with a heavy profession, which expires in 2025. Minister Van Hijum of Social Affairs responded by saying that he “absolutely saw the importance of this subject”, but also immediately warned of the financial consequences.
The police unions are insisting on better agreements. In the old scheme, officers can retire three years earlier, but they often have to supplement their income with savings. Moreover, there is no pension accrual during those years.
According to the unions, it is precisely at football matches that it becomes clear that police work is hard work.
