The first division match of the Dutch Eredivisie Vitesse-Sparta de Rotterdam was suspended today in injury time because one of the objects that was thrown from the stands, a plastic glass with beer, hit the goalkeeper of the away team , Maduka Okoye.
The goalkeeper had saved a penalty in the 64th minute and, in the final moments of the match, some supporters launched fireworks onto the pitch, injuring a television cameraman.
In discount time, when the score was 0-1, a spontaneous jumped onto the field and confronted goalkeeper Okoye, to which the latter responded with gestures asking him to leave the field, and then a plastic cup with beer hit him. the archer, who fell to the ground.
Referee Rob Dieperink stopped the game and, already in the locker room tunnel, the Sparta Rotterdam players refused to continue playing, so the referee decided to suspend the match.
The general manager of Vitesse, Pascal van Wijk, explained to the Dutch network ESPN that they have images of people who threw objects onto the field and “can expect a long ban on access to the stadium.”
“It is a black day for the Vitesse family and the true supporters, not for the two or three people who have ruined it,” he added.
The incidents contrasted with the initial image of the match, when players from the two clubs lined up in the center of the pitch in a V-shape to represent the word “Vrede”, meaning “peace” in the Dutch language.
The Royal Netherlands Football Federation announced that it will offer Vitesse and Sparta Rotterdam three options to determine the result: end the match and declare the visiting team the winner, play the remaining seven minutes of injury time or repeat the match completely.
