Vitesse expressly distances itself from the misbehavior of part of the away crowd during Vitesse’s Eredivisie game visiting FC Utrecht (1-1). Referee Allard Lindhout had to stop the match in De Galgenwaard twice, because fireworks were thrown on the field from the branch with Vitesse supporters and in the direction of the section with FC Utrecht fans. “I apologize on behalf of all of Vitesse for the misbehavior of part of the audience,” says general manager Pascal van Wijk.
The match between Vitesse and FC Utrecht was full of incidents. Referee Lindhout, for example, decided not to give the Arnhem team a penalty in the final phase after the intervention of the VAR, after Lois Openda was pulled on his shirt by Willem Janssen in the sixteen-meter area. In addition, the Vitesse supporters showed their worst side by throwing fireworks both before halftime and in the second half, forcing Lindhout to stop the game.
In November last year, supporters of FC Utrecht threw fireworks on the field in De GelreDome during the mutual duel. “It seems to be a retaliation,” Vitesse director Pascal van Wijk said in the statement. “But it is simply incomprehensible and absolutely unacceptable that part of the course has gone too far, by throwing fireworks at the field and the nearby sector.”
“It is a low point, which strongly discredits Vitesse and football,” continues van Wijk. “It’s the opposite of what we as a club – and a large majority of the supporters – stand for. Can the stadiums finally be full again, including the public, and then this happens… it is unacceptable and harmful to both the club and the supporters.”
Vitesse says it is doing everything it can to identify and punish the perpetrators by means of camera images. “I apologize on behalf of all of Vitesse for the misbehavior of part of the audience. Of course, especially to the people whose safety has been compromised,” says Van Wijk.
Thijs van Es, general manager of FC Utrecht, went in front of the camera of . immediately after the game ESPN also on fireworks incidents. “It really is a horror that when you can play a game with an audience again, which a lot of people feel like, being screwed up by a bunch of wretches,” said Van Es. “It is of course outrageous that fireworks are thrown into a corner where children are again. It makes no sense at all.”