Community service for man who hit Ajax player Davy Klaassen with a lighter

The man who threw a lighter at the field on April 5 during the Feyenoord-Ajax cup match has been sentenced to 60 hours of community service, of which 30 hours are suspended. The lighter hit Ajax player Davy Klaassen on the back of the head and caused a head injury. The game was temporarily halted and Feyenoord decided to put high nets on the field for the rest of the season to prevent incidents like this.

According to the police judge, the sentence is lower because the man and his environment were seriously threatened after the lighter incident, including via social media. “But it should be clear that this is not possible.” The suspect has also been banned from stadiums for the whole of the Netherlands for two years.

These images from April 5 show how Klaassen gets the lighter on his head:

After the incident in De Kuip, the KNVB tightened the rules for disturbances. From now on, a football match will be stopped if, for example, a cup is thrown onto the field. If this happens again after the restart, the game will be permanently stopped. A stop is made immediately if a player is hit by an object.

The new protocol does not seem to have a deterrent effect yet. In recent weeks, some matches have been stopped or abandoned. Only yesterday, the players of Groningen and Ajax were able to move in definitively, after Groningen supporters had thrown fireworks on the field twice. The game in Groningen, which was broken off after nine minutes, will be played tomorrow without an audience.