Feyenoord Supporters' Fireworks Incident Criticized
Valentijn Driessen has delivered a scathing verdict on the Feyenoord supporters who turned SC Cambuur’s stadium into a fireworks zone on Sunday, calling them “criminals” and renewing his plea for an outright ban on away fans.
Match halted, injuries confirmed
The trouble erupted just 12 minutes into the match in Leeuwarden. From the away end in the South Stand, large quantities of fireworks were set off, forcing the referee to halt play. Cambuur later revealed the situation was far worse than it initially appeared: fireworks were not only ignited in the away section, but also fired towards the pitch and into surrounding stands.
The club has since confirmed that five supporters were injured and are “not doing well”. They are suffering mainly from burns, hearing damage and eye injuries.
“It goes without saying that all care and attention are focused on these injured supporters and everyone at the club is enormously sympathetic,” Cambuur wrote in an official statement.
‘They are simply criminals’
For Driessen, this was not just another ugly incident. It crossed a line.
Calling out the Feyenoord fans responsible, the De Telegraaf football editor did not mince his words: “They are simply criminals, of course. It was an organised action. I happened to have contact with someone, and he said it was for fun. If this is what you get your pleasure from, you’re not right in the head.”
The scenes in Leeuwarden have pushed him to again demand a hard line from the KNVB. “I argue for it every time: stop with away supporters. Then you get rid of a whole lot of trouble,” he said.
He pointed to the recent Feyenoord v Ajax clash as an example of how fixtures can be managed without travelling fans. “Feyenoord v Ajax is played on a Saturday evening. And that is possible, because there are no Ajax supporters. Lovely, isn’t it?”
How did so much get in?
Driessen is also stunned that such a large arsenal of fireworks and flares ever made it into the Cambuur stadium.
“How the Feyenoord support managed to get so many fireworks and flares into the Cambuur stadium” is, in his view, a serious question for the authorities. According to him, clearing the away end during the incident would have been “very normal”, but he believes the mayor will have weighed up the risk of even more chaos.
“If you then clear the place out, you might be bringing all sorts of misery on yourself. The mayor will naturally have taken that into consideration. Because it would have been very normal to clear out that section.”
Feyenoord under pressure to identify culprits
Attention now turns to Feyenoord and the club’s responsibility to track down those involved. Driessen insists the Rotterdam side must dig deep into their records.
“I think Feyenoord really need to look carefully at who was there,” he said. Under normal circumstances, he argued, that should be straightforward. “Normally speaking that is not a problem, because you have gold club card holders or something like that.”
This time, though, the away end was “absolutely packed”. Driessen suspects that “a great many slipped through the net” and that those people were behind what he described as “horrific scenes”.
The fireworks have long since fizzled out in Leeuwarden. The fallout, for Feyenoord, the KNVB and Dutch football’s away-day culture, is only just beginning.
