Ajax-Feyenoord clash to be replayed without crowd
25th September 2023
The match held on Sunday was abandoned after Ajax fans disrupted the game with their team beaten 3-0 by the 55th minute.

- Dutch giants Ajax were 3-0 down after 55 minutes against Feyenoord on Sunday before the game was abandoned owing to crowd trouble.
- Some of the hardcore Ajax fans lobbed flares onto the turf at the Johan Cruyff arena in Amsterdam.
- The game had already been suspended twice and the referee had no choice but to abandon the match.
The remaining 35 minutes of the
'Klassieker' between Ajax and Feyenoord will be played Wednesday behind closed
doors, the Dutch football federation said, after the referee abandoned this
weekend's match due to flares fired onto the pitch.
The KNVB association said it had been
guided by the principle that in such cases "a match should preferably be
decided on the field... the match must then be resumed as soon as
possible."
Dutch giants Ajax were 3-0 down after 55
minutes on Sunday, as their bitter rivals from Rotterdam humiliated them in
front of their home fans, taking an unprecedented first-half lead.
Some of the hardcore Ajax fans lobbed
flares onto the turf at the Johan Cruyff arena in Amsterdam. The game had
already been suspended twice and the referee had no choice but to abandon the
match.
The violence spilled out of the ground, as
furious Ajax fans smashed the entrance to the stadium and fought running
battles with mounted police armed with tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The rescheduling of the match sparked
immediate anger from Ajax and from FC Volendam, who were supposed to be playing
Ajax that night.
"Ajax does not agree with this,"
the club said in a statement.
It suggested the match be moved to the
first week of November.
"Not only the clubs, but also the supporters
are victims of this (rescheduling). That is why Ajax is considering legal
action."
For their part, FC Volendam declared
themselves "surprised" by the decision and also said they were considering
their legal options.
Sunday's ugly scenes represented a new low
in the crisis suffered by Ajax, a four-time European Cup winner struggling both
on and off the field.
With only five points from four games, the
36-time Dutch champions are having their worst start to an Eredivisie season
since 1964/65.
Reports of a power struggle in the
boardroom have been all over the Dutch press, and the crowd had barely been
cleared from the ground than Ajax sacked their director of football Sven
Mislintat.
He had been under investigation for a
potential conflict of interest during a summer signing, but the club justified
the sacking by saying Mislintat had a "lack of broad support within the
organisation."
© Agence France-Presse