Monday, September 30, 2013

PSV-Ajax and United-liverpool

Now football in Britain the way we know and love it is screwed, with loveless owners changing crests and colours, prices going skyhigh, more and more tourists replacing passionate fans, all new grounds looking a like etcetera. Football in Holland isn't much better, with councils trying the ruin the game for it's fans. Most aways can only be visited using compulsary train or coach travel going straight to the ground, without actually going into the town that you're playing at. Last week Ajax played at PSV. However there were railwayworks in the south that weekend and trains couldn't run to Eindhoven, so the mayor of Eindhoven banned all Ajax fans from travelling to his town. The Amsterdam council and Ajax suggested coachtravel, but that was declined, a traindetour via Venlo was banned as only dieseltrains run on that stretch and dieseltrains' emergencybrakes can't be switched off, so they couldn't be trusted in the hands of Ajax-fans, then coachtravel to a town near Eindhoven from where a train to Philips' ground was to be layed on was suggested but declined aswell (even after Amsterdam offered to send dibble down south with the Ajax-fans to save the local police from the fuss). All in all the mayor of Eindhoven just didn't Ajax-fans in his town. But that was all a bit too easy, the mayor wanted the easy way out, the cheapest way out. That wasn't gonna happen. The night before the game loads of Ajax fans travelled south and played a cat and mouse game with the police which took the entire evening and night, using a lot of policemanpower. In the end the dibble booted most Ajax-fans out of Eindhoven, but it didn't come cheap. Next time; don't ban us! Click on the pics to enlarge. Gerrie Muhren (RIP) Ajax-Volendam for the Dutch Cup