The Dutch Football Federation said that the remaining 35 minutes of the ‘Klassieker’ between Ajax and Feyenoord will be played Wednesday in a private setting after the referee called off this weekend’s game due to flares being launched into the field.
The KNVB organization claimed that it had operated under the guiding concept that, in certain situations, “a match should preferably be decided on the field… the match must then be resumed as soon as possible.”
The Rotterdam rivals embarrassed Dutch powerhouse Ajax in front of their home crowd on Sunday, seizing an extraordinary first-half lead and leaving them down 3-0 after 55 minutes.
At the Johan Cruyff arena in Amsterdam, a few ardent Ajax supporters threw flames onto the playing surface. The referee had no choice but to terminate the match because it had already been put on hold twice.
Furious Ajax supporters damaged the stadium entrance and engaged in running skirmishes with mounted police using tear gas to disperse the crowd as the violence spilled out from the ground.
The deplorable events marked a new low in Ajax’s turmoil, which has seen the four-time European Cup champion struggling both on and off the field.
The 36-time Dutch champions are off to their worst start in an Eredivisie season since 1964/65 with only five points from four games.
After the audience had dispersed from the scene following reports of a power struggle in the boardroom, Sven Mislintat, the director of football at Ajax, was fired.
The club defended the firing by claiming that Mislintat had a “lack of broad support within the organization” despite the fact that he was under investigation for a possible conflict of interest during a summer signing.
