The police unions, as we now know, are campaigning for a better early retirement. The actions started in the run-up to the away match against NAC. However, the police did not need to be deployed. Everything went well. The mayor of Breda had seen that correctly.
Action failed, so the police unions decided to frustrate Feyenoord away. And with ‘success’, because the classic was cancelled. But it is still not enough. With actions during Ajax – Utrecht, football is once again being abused.
As far as Supporters Association Ajax is concerned, Utrecht-home could have been played just fine. With supporters of Ajax and Utrecht, but it is not going to happen. So once again a new match date must be found in the already overcrowded football calendar. By cancelling the match, Ajax is already three matches behind in the Eredivisie very early in the season. That is crazy.
Fabian Nagtzaam, director-manager of SV Ajax: “We are really disappointed that the municipality has taken this decision. This deprives supporters of the opportunity to show that it is possible. In this way, the police maintain that they are structurally needed with a high level of deployment at such matches.”
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“In addition to our disappointment, we have questions about the process. The police announce a strike and then independently advise not to let this competition go ahead. In other words: the butcher inspects his own meat. The interests are very much mixed up.”
“The end apparently justifies the means. Supporters, and not just those of Ajax, are now all the victims of this. While we are actually striving for normalization and structurally less police deployment.”
“It is also a shame and strange that the police have made no attempt to enter into consultation with us as SV Ajax. This also applies to the local triangle, further consisting of the Public Prosecution Service and the municipality of Amsterdam. We represent 150,000 members. That is more than all political parties in The Hague combined.”
“We have good contacts with the Utrecht supporters’ association. And on that side too, everyone – just like both clubs and the KNVB – wanted to do everything they could to play football on Sunday. Supporters are now not getting the chance to show that this match can be played without excessive police deployment.”
Football is being abused by the police to enforce the demand to the cabinet for the preservation of early retirement. As a supporters’ association, we understand the means, but not the action. We also don’t think that they are losing sleep over it in The Hague.
The decision to cancel Utrecht-home also has (inter)national consequences. Nagtzaam: “This decision jeopardizes the course of the competition. And certainly also the international image of the Eredivisie. This is bad news for the allocation of tournaments and finals. You can bet that UEFA, FIFA and other sports associations are watching. Amsterdam, and therefore the Netherlands, is simply left in its lurch.”
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