The top match in the Eredivisie between Feyenoord and PSV will start on Sunday at 2:30 PM. The municipality of Rotterdam has rejected Feyenoord’s request to move the match, NOS reports. The club had asked for a postponement because it took action later than planned on Thursday evening due to Storm Benjamin.
“The request to play the match at a later time has been rejected,” Feyenoord reported on social media on Friday morning. The KNVB investigated whether a shift was possible and consulted with all parties involved. “But according to the local triangle in Rotterdam it was not possible,” the football association said.
Trainer Robin van Persie indicated on Thursday evening after the 3-1 win over Panathinaikos that Feyenoord had officially submitted a request to the KNVB. “The match against PSV is now extremely close to this match. I assume that there is a chance of success, otherwise we would not have done it. We would like 8 p.m., for example,” he said during the press conference.
Feyenoord was originally scheduled to kick off against Panathinaikos at 6:45 p.m., but due to the expected storm, the game was first brought forward to 4:30 p.m. Based on the latest weather forecasts, the kick-off was ultimately postponed to 9 p.m.
According to Van Persie, the late start meant that his team had insufficient recovery time before the match against PSV. Clubs must have at least 48 hours of rest between two matches. The match against Panathinaikos ended around 11 p.m., which means there are now 64.5 hours between the two matches. Due to the transition to winter time, an extra hour will be added. PSV has more time to recover in the run-up to the top match. The Eindhoven team played their last match on Tuesday evening and won 6-2 against Napoli.
