Netherlands / 03-10-2012
Utrecht fans went wild: “Hamas Hamas, Jews to the Gas”
Utrecht – Ajax won the cup game 0:3, but the host fans sang anti-Semitic songs, went wild and the referee stopped the game. The Utrecht manager: “It wasn’t just a few, there were thousands.”
Ajax went yesterday (Wednesday) for an away game against Utrecht as part of the Dutch
Cup games and easily won 0:3, but the real story of the game lies in the Utrecht fans, who shouted racial and antisemitic exclamations against the Ajax fans, and also went wild at the end of the game.
This is no news that the fans of the Amsterdam team are known for their strong connections to the Jewish community, and in many of the team’s games Israeli flags are waved in the bleachers; yesterday too, there was such a flag in the bleacher. They did not like it in Utrecht, and during the game the referee, Neil Haus, was compelled to stop the match for fifteen minutes due to vicious antisemitic shouts against the Jews from the bleachers: “All Jews should go to the gas. The trains are again ready for you. Hamas, Hamas.”
At the end of the game Haus said: “I could not let the game continue with such background cries. I stopped the game and after I was told that the situation had calmed down I renewed it, although nothing really calmed down.”
In addition, during the interruption of the game an Utrecht fan infiltrated the grass and ran on the field holding the club flag until the ushers managed to subdue him. On the other hand, the Utrecht manager, Wilco Van Schaik, does not intend to let the matter pass.
“This is not the first time we hear such exclamations. The problem is that we are not dealing with a small number of fans, but with a few thousands. What are we to do – close the stadium? Despite that, we certainly intend to take measure in order to try and change the behavior of the fans.”
Following the game the fans continued to go wild and also confronted the police that arrested nine fans. It should be noted that this is not the first time that the Utrecht fans run wild. Last year too against Twente they rioted and the police had to intervene.
