They hardly stand out in the bushes around the stadium, but they are there. Ten to fifteen men strong. Peering between the bars of the fences, between which you can hardly see more than the contours of football players warming up. Reciprocating tracksuits. Flashing balls.
Prisoners, the image is reminiscent of that. But where they usually fantasize about what it’s like outside, these people stare through the bars because they wanted to be inside. Into the stadium. Watch their club. Hoping for a stunt together. From their RKC.
The home match against Ajax. That should have been a nice football afternoon in Waalwijk. Finally, they thought at RKC last week, the Mandemakers Stadium would be full again. That rarely happens, with 2,100 season ticket holders and a modest following. But when visiting from Amsterdam, the Brabant city usually runs out, like everywhere in the Eredivisie. Home matches against Ajax are the icing on the cake. Also for RKC.
The tap would flow continuously and the sponsors and guests could count on a party anyway. Jeroen van der Boom would come to perform. The Toppers Medley in the Mandemakers Stadium.
But it turned out differently. Now that spectators are not welcome at sports matches anywhere in the Netherlands, one of RKC’s most important matches of the year has to be played in private. This means that the club is missing out on 200,000 to 250,000 euros, they estimate at RKC. Money that will not be recouped this year.
For that reason, director Frank van Mosselveld was in favor of moving games to later in the season, when it was possible to play with an audience. PSV and Feyenoord also wanted that, but it was decided on Thursday that the rounds would continue. “The fact that this game has to be played behind closed doors again is a great disappointment and hurts,” RKC wrote on its website. “During the past seven home games, we have taken all measures to comply with government restrictions. Research has shown that football stadiums are not at all sources of infection. Professional football is with and for the public. With this decision we go from 100 back to 0.”
More than two tons
They think differently about the opponent. Ajax did want to play football. And see here how diverse the interests in the Eredivisie sometimes are. Where RKC did not want to play in order to be able to earn a few hundred thousand from this match later in the year, Ajax is preparing in Waalwijk for the Champions League match against Besiktas, which in the event of a win is good for a premium of 2.8 million euros. The umpteenth million bonus, on top of the approximately 65 million that Ajax has already insured itself in Europe this season.
Thanks in part to the international campaigns of previous seasons, Ajax has by far the largest budget in the Eredivisie. With approximately 160 million euros, it is twice as large as that of co-leader PSV and twenty times that of RKC, which has the third smallest budget in the Eredivisie with 8.1 million. Only Go Ahead Eagles and Fortuna Sittard have to make do with less.
Ajax spends more than 90 million euros on personnel costs, at RKC that amounts to 3.5 million euros, according to the latest annual reports of both clubs. That is about as much as Dusan Tadic earns at Ajax on his own. And less than what the top earner in Amsterdam, Sébastien Haller, gets per year. The market value of the French striker (27 million) is almost three times as high as that of the entire selection of RKC.
Still, because financial relationships do not always say everything, RKC coach Joseph Oosting sees a perspective against Ajax. Look at Heracles and Go Ahead Eagles. Also no top teams, who nevertheless both played 0-0 against the national champion. That proves that there is something to be gained as an underdog.
Trainer Erik ten Hag hopes in turn to see a more effective Ajax. A team that would now destroy the opponent’s lines. That’s what he designed his training for. A passive opponent? Then his players had to create more space for themselves. “They had to make more annoying meters.”
Ten Hag had not discussed with his players that there would be no audience. His colleague at RKC hadn’t emphasized it either. “You have to deal with it,” said Oosting. A pandemic required “flexibility”.
Bare mess
Still, it’s a bare-bones affair when both teams start the match. During the warm-up, pounding warm-up beats could have masked the absence of excited buzz in the stands. Now an uneasy silence falls over the stadium.
In the first ten minutes, some decorative fireworks and bangs go into the air outside the gates. This also happened in other matches earlier this weekend. But in Waalwijk it will not be grim. On the other side of the fences behind which supporters had been looking longingly at the smallest accommodation in the Eredivisie, stewards keep order without any problems.
It is also not exciting on the field. After Haller’s 1-0, RKC seems to score a connection goal via Michiel Kramer, but his header is turned by Remco Pasveer. After that Ajax scores four more times, via Steven Berghuis (two goals), Jurriën Timber and Haller: 0-5.
The match that thousands of people had been looking forward to eventually turned into a perfunctory football afternoon, at which the smaller football brother had to humbly bow his head.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/rkc-ajax-dutiful-afternoon-in-a-deserted-stadium/
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