Ajax clash abandoned as it becomes fourth match of WEEKEND marred by fan trouble
Ajax's clash with Groningen has been abandoned just nine minutes in after angry fans stormed the pitch and threw smoke bombs.
The home supporters were protesting their club's board after their team suffered relegation from the Eredivisie this season. The players were first taken off in the sixth minute after smoke bombs were thrown on the pitch, before a fan stormed onto the field carrying a banner calling for the Groningen board to resign.
The game was then able to be restarted after the pitch was cleared, but three minutes later fireworks were thrown down from the stands. That led to referee Jeroen Manschot abandoning the match, in line with new rules enacted by the Royal Dutch Football Association.
Those rules state that all games will be stopped if a player or official was hit by a projectile from the crowd. They also compel referees to temporarily halt matches if a projectile is thrown but does not hit anybody and abandon games altogether if that happens a second time.
The Dutch FA opted to beef up their rules to combat fan trouble after Ajax star Davy Klassen was left with a cut head after being hit by a projectile during a KNVB Cup semi-final clash between his side and Feyenoord last month.
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It is the fourth Eredivisie game of the weekend to be at least temporarily halted by crowd trouble, as Dutch football faces a rising problem. It is now up to the KNVB to decide if and when Ajax's game with Groningen will be restarted, with the hosts releasing a statement after Sunday's events.
The home fans were believed to be protesting their side's relegation"The match between FC Groningen and Ajax was stopped after ten minutes of play on Sunday afternoon. Twice fireworks were thrown onto the field from the stands. After six minutes, the game was stopped for the first time. After fifteen minutes the players came back onto the field, but that didn't last long," a message on the club website read.
"Referee Jeroen Manschot had to stop the match definitively moments later. The recently tightened measures of the KNVB stipulate that if an object is thrown towards the field, the match will initially be temporarily stopped and if repeated, permanently.
"If a player or (assistant) referee is hit by an object from the audience, the referee will immediately stop the match. Later, the KNVB will announce how to deal with this match."
Boss Wouter Gudde blasted the actions of his side's supporters, branding them "morons" for forcing the game to be abandoned. But he insisted that Groningen took every possible measure to prevent the protests after rumours of what would happen began emerging on social media earlier this week.
Referee Jeroen Manschot was left with no choice but to abandon the game“There was a rumour that all kinds of actions were being launched. Then what can you do? Since last Monday we have been talking to all kinds of supporter groups, and we have had consultations with the security triangle. We also interacted with the police from Germany and Belgium and deployed fireworks dogs," he said.
"If anyone has the golden solution on how we can counter this, I'd love to hear it. When I look back at our own organization, municipality and police. We've done everything we can.
"I think it's terrible that we had to send a very large group of people home again, including many children who wanted to see their idols. That has been spoiled by some morons. We have done everything we can to prevent this. I am extremely disappointed at the moment."
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