Riot Police Use Tear Gas As Ajax Fans Riot, Smash Stadium In Feyenoord Clash

Some truly deplorable scenes were witnessed on Sunday evening during an Eredivisie clash between AFC Ajax and Feyenoord at the Johan Cruyff Arena. The match had to be abandoned soon after half-time when the home crowd started to riot and vandalise their own home stadium.

Just before the break, the match had to be paused temporarily when flares were thrown onto the pitch. Play was eventually resumed but stopped again in the 55th minute after more flares were flung onto the pitch and violence erupted in the stands. Officials soon determined that the situation had gone out of control, and the match had to be "abandoned".

Fans have had enough of a disappointing campaign

It was easy to see why the fans were in such a state, after falling 3-0 down to their rivals. The home supporters were clearly agitated by what was happening on the pitch and they decided to take it out on each other and on the club's facilities.

The tensions started to rise after Feyenoord went 2-0 up in the first half, but things went completely haywire after the home team found themselves buried under three goals.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the match was stopped and the Eredivisie issued a quick statement that read: "The Classic is permanently stopped after repeatedly throwing fireworks on the pitch. More information about how to complete this match will follow later."

The anger stems from the fact that Ajax have been having a miserable 2023-24 season thus far. They are sitting all the way down in 14th place in the league table at the moment, something which is unimaginable for a club that has dominated the league in recent years. They managed to win only one out of the five matches played so far, counting the abandoned match against Feyenoord.

Last season, Feyenoord won the trophy, followed by PSV in second place. Ajax only made it to third place, meaning that they missed out on the coveted UEFA Champions League spots.

While third place does not seem so disappointing to many, it is a complete disaster for a club like Ajax, who won a string of four consecutive league titles in 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

Needless to say, going 3-0 down against the Rotterdam-based side was something that the home fans were willing to accept.

More vandalism after the suspension

Once the match was officially suspended, fans were ushered out of the venue by riot police and stadium marshals. Unfortunately, the problems did not end with the flares. More fans started to smash up the facilities, breaking glass doors and destroying chairs and basically anything they can inflict damage upon.

Once outside, the chaos continued as fans began to clash against one another. It became a dangerous situation especially for the supporters of the visiting team. Footage soon emerged of mounted police officers charging at the crowd with their horses in order to disperse them.

Eventually, riot police had to resort to tear gas in order to force the crazed fans to disperse and leave the area. The tensions clearly came to a breaking point as the fans watched their team getting thrashed by their biggest rivals in the Dutch counterpart of "El Classico".

Heads have started rolling

Due to the dismal results this season following a disappointing 2022-23 campaign, it is clear that manager Maurice Steijn is under a lot of pressure. However, the first head to roll was that of Director of Football Sven Mislintat, who only joined the club in May.

Shortly after the riot, the club confirmed that Mislintat has been sacked. A statement posted on the club's website read: "Ajax has ended the collaboration with Director of Football Sven Mislintat with immediate effect. The lack of broad support within the organisation is the reason behind this decision."

The club also condemned the violence that took place inside its home stadium: "The management and Supervisory Board of Ajax distance themselves from the misconduct that led to the abandonment of the match against Feyenoord on Sunday and the disturbances afterwards. This is not the behaviour that belongs to Ajax."

They stated further that "disappointment about the poor start to the season is completely understandable, but should never be the reason for disturbances".