Heerenveen vs Ajax called off due to snowfall
28 January: Tonight's Eredivisie
fixture between SC Heerenveen and Ajax was called off
only 15 minutes prior to kick-off due to the heavy
snowfall in the northern Netherlands. Even the covering of the
pitch with sheets of plastic during the day was not enough to
keep it in the required condition, after which
referee Vink took his decision. A new date for the game has not
been announced yet.
Rafael van der Vaart (M), Nigel
de Jong (L) and Julien Escude (R) going through "warm-ups"
prior to Wednesday's game, moments before the referee called
it off. [Photo: ANP]
According to international rules a
football game has to get cancelled if either the condition
of the pitch is so bad that there is a high injury risk for the
players or if the weather has made the chalk lines on the grass
invisible. If the pitch is covered with a layer of snow it is
in theory allowed to play. In that case the club will have to
draw new, black lines on the surface, using black paint or
carbon.
In Heerenveen, however, hardly
any snow had fallen during the day. Snowfall was expected for
the evening. For that reason an army of employees and
volunteers
covered the pitch of Abe Lenstra Stadium with plastic
sheets to protect the grass from early snow. As the
sheets were removed, however, it started snowing
heavily. The teams entered the pitch for their warming-up, but
were soon told that a cancellation had become inevitable.
Referee Pieter Vink stated that he took his decision after
consultation of both coaches, Foppe de Haan and Ronald Koeman.
The game was called off around 19:45CET, 15 minutes prior to
kick-off. Some 800 Ajax supporters had already arrived and
could return home.
Ronald Koeman, for one, was well
aware that the call may not be a bad thing for the
injury-battered Amsterdammers. Ajax travelled to the northern
province of Friesland without twelve of its usual first team
players, whereas SC Heerenveen would have
played Ajax at full strength, with its former Ajax
strikers Richard Knopper and Gerald Sibon. "In a way we
would rather play now we're here", said the Ajax boss.
"But I must say I am not unhappy with the cancellation."
Koeman would have fielded the
following line-up: Stekelenburg; De Jong, Heitinga,
Escudé, O'Brien; Galásek, Sneijder, Maxwell; De
Ridder, Van der Vaart, Sikora. The bench would have been
occupied by Boschker, Yakubu, Vermaelen, De Mul, Mitea and
Culina.
SC Heerenveen chairman Riemer van der
Velde was not as happy with the referee's call: "I think it's
nonsense. The pitch is good and we have pitch-heating. I would
have kicked off to see whether the pitch would bear it. As
for the lines: they could have been made visible by the
simple use of a broom."
The midweek fixtures of Ajax's direct
competitors, PSV and Ajax, were played as scheduled. PSV had no
problems at home against de bottom team in the Eredivisie, FC
Zwolle: 5-1. Feyenoord, meanwhile, booked a hard-fought
road-win at NEC in Nijmegen: 1-2. PSV and Ajax now both have 43
points, but the Amsterdammers still have a game in hand.
UPDATE (30 January):
The Dutch Football Association (KNVB) announced today that
the new date for SC Heerenveen vs Ajax is Wednesday 25
February, kick-off time 20:00 CET. See the Ajax USA matches
index page for Ajax's full schedule. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, ANP
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