Valentijn Driessen thinks it is ‘a brave act’ by Steven Berghuis to report the violent threats to him and that of his family after his transfer from Feyenoord to Ajax. The chief of football of The Telegraph calls the nineteen A4 pages with, among other things, death threats ‘the umpteenth proof that healthy rivalry has turned into blind hatred with calls for violence’. “Hopefully, these single-cell offenders will be set as an example, lifted from their beds, severely punished and publicly pilloried.”
Driessen points out in his column in the newspaper on Friday that it is not new that part of the supporters of Ajax and Feyenoord cross borders seriously and frequently. on the day that The Telegraph Berghuis published the report, an Amsterdammer was in court in Rotterdam for three alleged attacks on two Feyenoord cafes and a house where it was wrongly suspected that a Feyenoord hooligan lived there. “It once again shows that the supporters of both clubs are not ready to visit each other during mutual duels.”
“Let this ban last for years to come instead of all sorts of overtures,” Driessen emphasizes. “They are doomed to failure from the start. How unfortunate that the good suffer among the bad. The bill for all the trouble that a Classic causes with supporters of the visiting Ajax or Feyenoord cannot be justified socially.” After repeated incidents in matches of both the first teams and the promises, it was decided in 2009 not to allow away fans at the Classic for a period of five years: no away fans in the Johan Cruijff ArenA and no away fans in De Kuip. However, ‘the period of cooling’ has now lasted twelve years.
Driessen states that a Johan Cruijff ArenA full of Ajax players and a Kuip full of Feyenoord players does not detract from the entourage of a Classic, but does fear a Kuip with only Feyenoord fans when Berghuis comes to visit with Ajax on December 19. “To get ahead of the music: it is to be hoped that the referee on duty will then act in the same way as he should in the case of alleged racism from the stands.”
Driessen points out that the KNVB has drawn up firm guidelines in the event of alleged racism. “Just stop, go into the catacombs, don’t come back and leave the follow-up process to the disciplinary committee of the football association and justice. With only fans of the home club playing a piece of cake.” Finally, he believes that companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as a conduit take far too little responsibility for the content and allow their stage to be abused by users with impunity. “Governments must tighten the thumbscrews on the social hatches, make them responsible for the statements on their stage and no longer grant users anonymity.”
Related
More sports news