Ajaxtalk

The Vitesse vs Ajax cup tie (31 January) will have to be re-scheduled.

Two days after the fixture, on 02 February, there will be a large-scale dance event at the Gelredome, called 'Hard Bass'. The Hard Bass production team claims that they need 48 hours to turn the stadium into a huge dance-club. They went to court and won.

Vitesse are hoping that the KNVB will help finding a new date for the fixture, but if the KNVB play it hard one of the options will be to play the game in Amsterdam instead.

To be continued.

K.

Verdict from the KNVB.

The Vitesse vs Ajax cup game will not be played on a different date and it will not be played at the Amsterdam ArenA (the latter is against KNVB Cup regulations: it is impossible to give up the right - or in this case, obligation - to host a cup fixture).

The game must be played on Thursday 31 January, as scheduled, but at neutral territory. It will be a Vitesse home game, formally.

The KNVB have given Vitesse a 21 January deadline. If the club fails to find an alternative venue for the fixture, they will be banned from the competition (meaning that Ajax will advance without playing). Again, moving the game to Amsterdam is not an option according to KNVB Cup regulations.

According to press reports, the match is likely to be played at the Grolsch Veste in Enschede.

K.

It won't be Enschede. Pitch is in a very poor condition there, so FC Twente turned Vitesse's request down.

Pressure on Vitesse. It's them who will have to find something. Deadline is 21 January.

We can lean back and see what happens.

K.

New option: Emmen. Seems likely.

Small ground, 8,600 capacity, but it will be enough, I think. I don't expect thousands of fans to travel for this cup fixture.

K.

As its a Vitesse home game I would have thought they would play down the road at NEC !!!

Confirmed now. It's Emmen.

K.

According to Ajax Netwerk , our prize for the grand day out in Emmen is an Ajax vs. AZ halve finale tie. Time to put our previous cup debacle vs. AZ right !! Per VI.nl : De halve finales worden gespeeld op 26, 27 of 28 februari.

PEC are home to PSV in the other halve finale .

According to VI's listing, Our fixtures around this match are :

zondag 24/2 Ajax ADO Den Haag Eredivisie
zaterdag 2/3 FC Twente Ajax Eredivisie

Date for the semi-final has been set: Wednesday 27 February, 20:45 CET.

The other semi, PEC Zwolle vs PSV, will be played the same day at 18:45.

K.