Friday, May 7, 2021 at 13:52• Dominic Mostert

Erik ten Hag acknowledges that ‘undoubtedly things have gone wrong’ around the celebration of Ajax’s national championship. The municipality of Amsterdam had called on fans not to come to the stadium during the championship match against FC Emmen, but the players and trainers were cheered on by approximately twelve thousand supporters from a parking deck of the Johan Cruijff Arena.

The fans did not adhere to the corona rules and were packed together cheering, singing and lighting fireworks. “Undoubtedly, things have gone wrong”, Ten Hag confirms at the press conference on Friday in the run-up to the competition match with Feyenoord. “Everyone should look in the mirror and so should we. But certainly also everyone else who has been involved in it. In some areas it could have been different, but in the end it was not a lavish party. There were people, that was clear. . There were fans who supported us. We missed them. We hope they can return soon. “

“We would have preferred to have them regulated in the stadium. Unfortunately that was not possible. They were on the square and that could have been better organized. All parties involved should look in the mirror”, Ten Hag continues. Although he indicates that everyone should look in the mirror, he does not mention concrete things when asked what he could have done differently around the celebration. “Not so many things. We should have asked them to leave in a very sober way, but I don’t think that would have been in the interest of public order.”

Ten Hag could also say little about additional measures, such as the use of mouth masks. “As I said: we cannot organize that. After our cup win, the square here was completely screened off. There were perhaps a thousand police, there were police platoons and there were water cannons. Apparently they didn’t think that was necessary, so The situation was that there were a lot of people. I’m a trainer, I didn’t have to organize it. I said beforehand that it would have been better to have the people tested and let them into the stadium in an organized manner. ” Couldn’t Ajax have foreseen it? “I’m not going to do that, you shouldn’t have to ask me that.”