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Ajax fans not welcome in Groningen for Eredivisie game

30 August: There will be no Ajax fans in Oosterpark Stadium tomorrow, to support their team in the Eredivisie game against FC Groningen. The mayor of the northern city, Mr Jacques Wallage, has officially forbidden Ajax fans from attending the game.

Wallage's decision comes as a surprise, less than 48 hours before kick-off, and has outraged many Ajax fans already in possession of a ticket. The fan boycot comes after a long discussion about the ticket allocation for Ajax fans. FC Groningen only wanted to put 600 tickets to Ajax' availability. However, since Oosterpark Stadium has a capacity of more than 12,000, a number of 800 tickets is obligatory, according to the United Football Fan Clubs of The Netherlands (SOVS), which are accepted by the KNVB.

Complaints by Ajax and the Independent Ajax Fanclub (OFA) did not have the desired effect. No more than 600 tickets for the away section went on sale last week and sold out immediately. Today, Mr Wallage and the Groningen police department claimed to have received serious and reliable indications that large numbers of Ajax fans were planning to come to Groningen without a ticket, possibly looking for trouble.

The Groningen mayor feared violent actions by the visitors from Amsterdam and decided to ban all Ajax fans from Oosterpark Stadium and his city on Sunday 01 September.

In a statement on Ajax.nl, Ajax says to be "dismayed" by Wallage's decision. Meanwhile, the Amsterdam club urges its fans not to travel to Groningen, but to stay at home.

This incident is the second already in the 2002-2003 season, which has only just started. According to the regulations for away sections, Ajax had the right to receive 1,200 tickets from Vitesse Arnhem for the Eredivisie game at Gelredome last weekend. Ajax received only 900, complained about that but ended up grudgingly accepting the meagre allocation.

Last season, SC Heerenveen refused to send Ajax the obligatory number of tickets, after which the Ajax board decided not to sell the tickets to its fans, but to appear themselves in the empty away section of Heerenveen's Abe Lenstra Stadium as an absurd protest.

Whether the KNVB will punish Vitesse and FC Groningen for violating the agreements reached about away allocations is as yet unknown.

In response to Mr Wallage's decision, Ajax' general director Arie van Eijden requested that the KNVB cancel FC Groningen vs Ajax for this Sunday. Ajax wanted the KNVB to re-schedule the game to a date on which FC Groningen is willing to allocate the obligatory 800 tickets to Ajax. Ajax underscored that this ban is a blatant violation of the allocation agreements as reached by clubs and KNVB on 13 June of this year. However, this request was denied by the KNVB. (MP)

(Source: NOS Teletekst, ANP press agency, Ajax.nl)