A majority of the Dutch parliament (the Tweede Kamer, as we call it) feels that the time has come to ban 'away fans' from so-called high risk Eredivisie fixtures forever. The boards of Ajax and Feyenoord also support that idea.
For those interested: I was there yesterday and below is the 'eye witness' account I posted to the Feyenoord v Ajax thread yesterday...
K.The Ajax supporters (1,600) were divided over two trains from the ArenA to De Kuip. 800 on each train. I was on train #1. Just before arrival, less than one mile before De Kuip, some nutters managed to pull the emergency brake, in spite of riot police presence on board. The train was suddenly standing still, furniture was thrown out of the windows and approximately 30 hooligans managed to open the doors and get off the train. There weren't many Feyenoord supporters there. Riot police were on the spot in no-time and secured the area.
Okay. Here's what the police should have done: arrest the group of approximately 30 hooligans, who had gotten off the train and were throwing bricks. If they had done that, the train (with some 770 innocent supporters, who were still on the train and behaved normally) could have pulled into the Rotterdam Stadion train station, which was only a few hundred metres away.
Here's what they actually did: they did not arrest anyone, but attempted to get everyone back on the train. A sort of 'cat and mouse' game was the result: fans running away from the train and back again, the police chasing them. The train was there, standing in the middle of Rotterdam, near De Kuip, for well over an hour.
The result: Feyenoord fans saw the train standing there and had plenty of time to call their mates with their cellphones. Increasing number of Feyenoord hooligans arrived on the scene. They never came close to our train, though. There were no fights and they were too far away to throw bricks. They only managed to fire a few rockets.
Train #2, meanwhile, was approaching Rotterdam, but received orders to stop outside of the city, until the 800 on train #1 were safely inside the away section. It took so long that the mayor of Rotterdam made his second big mistake: he ordered that train #2 returned to Amsterdam. Result: it went off big time aboard train #2. They destroyed the doors, broke out. Apparently, they've been fighting the police and caused trouble for the rest of the afternoon. I called a guy who was on train #2. At 4:00 PM they were still outside on the tracks. There's been no train traffic from Amsterdam to Rotterdam all afternoon.
Back to train #1...
After an hour everyone was finally back on board and we pulled into Rotterdam Stadion, the train station in front of De Kuip. There was a f#cking army of Feyenoord hooligans there. Hundreds of 'em. We were pelted with bricks and rockets and on both sides of the fence there were several attempts to break through.
We were now standing in the 'lock chamber' in between the railway station and the steel tunnel to the away section and - to cut a long story short - that's where we would for the rest of the afternoon. It was soon announced by the police that the mayor had decided we were not welcome inside and were going to be transported back to Amsterdam.
Our train, however, was no longer 'intact' at this point, so they started to arrange city buses for us. This took a long time. We were standing outside, right in front of the stadium, listening to the game on the radio. The buses finally arrived around the 75th minute. We heard Feyenoord score the 2-1 when it was our turn to hop on a bus - and a few minutes later we were on our way back to Amsterdam, on a bus full of Rotterdam coppers. We were listening to the radio and it was great to celebrate the equalizer and the game winner, I must say... Everyone very happy after all.
But the problem wasn't solved yet. The buses arrived so late that they couldn't put all 800 of us on transport before the final whistle. After the game an outraged horde of Feyenoord fans stormed out of the stadium and attacked the 'lock chamber', where some 200 Ajax fans were still held. A few guys on my bus were in touch with a few other who were still there and apparently Feyenoord almost managed to break through the fencing.
That's the story, pretty much... Can't say it was a dull day.
I wonder what's going to happen now: the cops took all of our season tickets (orders from Ajax). I've been told that they wanted the season tickets of everyone on train #1, so that they can use the photos on them to identify the hooligans on the video footage the police were taking. Which would mean I am safe. I never left the train and didn't do a thing. Wonder how (and when) I will get my season ticket back, tho.
Anyway: it sucks that we missed the game, but to be honest with you I am extremely happy with this win - and especially the way in which we booked it.
