Feyenoord Fans Cause Chaos: Call for Away-Fan Ban

Valentijn Driessen has run out of patience with Feyenoord’s travelling support. After the chaos in Leeuwarden on Sunday, the De Telegraaf football editor no longer sees any place for away fans in Dutch football.

Fireworks, panic and injuries

SC Cambuur – Feyenoord had barely settled when it exploded, literally. After just 12 minutes, the referee stopped the match. From the away end in the South Stand, large amounts of fireworks were set off, sending smoke and shockwaves through the stadium.

According to Cambuur, it didn’t stop at noise and spectacle. In an official statement, the club reported that fireworks were also fired towards the pitch and into surrounding stands. What initially looked like another ugly incident has turned into something far more serious.

Cambuur now say five supporters were injured and “are not doing well”. The victims are mainly suffering from burns, hearing damage and eye injuries. The club stressed that “all care and attention are focused on these injured supporters” and spoke of “enormous sympathy” within the organisation for those affected.

‘They are simply criminals’

For Driessen, the line has been crossed.

He did not mince his words about the Feyenoord fans who lit the fireworks and caused the unrest. “They are simply criminals, of course. It was an organised action,” he said. He added that he had spoken to someone who claimed it was done “for fun”.

“If this is what you get your pleasure from, you’re not right in the head,” Driessen snapped.

The incident, in his eyes, is not an isolated misstep but proof that the system is failing. And that the response must now be drastic.

Call for a nationwide away-fan ban

Driessen wants the KNVB to finally hit hard. His solution is radical but, he argues, unavoidable.

“I argue for it every time: stop with away supporters. Then you get rid of a whole lot of trouble,” he said.

He pointed to Feyenoord v Ajax as an example of how that could work. The Klassieker was played on a Saturday evening, something long considered risky. “And that is possible, because there are no Ajax supporters. Lovely, isn’t it?” Driessen remarked.

In his view, the absence of away fans reduces the risk of major disturbances to an acceptable level. What happened in Leeuwarden only strengthens his conviction.

How did this get into the stadium?

One question in particular leaves Driessen stunned: how did so many fireworks and flares end up in the away section at Cambuur?

The volume and scale point, in his opinion, to a serious failure in checks and security. Yet he also understands why the authorities did not immediately evacuate the section, even though that might have seemed the obvious next step.

“If you then clear the place out, you might be bringing all sorts of misery on yourself. The mayor will naturally have taken that into consideration,” he said. “Because it would have been very normal to clear out that section.”

The suggestion is clear: the situation had become so volatile that any intervention risked making it worse.

Feyenoord urged to hunt down culprits

Attention now also turns to Feyenoord itself. Driessen believes the club has a responsibility to identify exactly who was in that away end and who was involved.

“I think Feyenoord really need to look carefully at who was there,” he said. Under normal circumstances, that should be straightforward. “Normally speaking that is not a problem, because you have gold club card holders or something like that.”

But on Sunday, the away section was crammed. “This away end was absolutely packed. So I think a great many slipped through the net. Those were the troublemakers responsible for those horrific scenes,” Driessen concluded.

The images from Leeuwarden will linger. The question now is whether the KNVB and clubs will treat this as a final warning—and whether Dutch football is ready to live without away fans to stop nights like this from happening again.