Feyenoord fans force halt to Europa League match

The Europa League match between Feyenoord and AS Roma last night had to be suspended for more than 10 minutes after the crowd threw a number of items onto the field. The night ended with a 2-1 victory for AS Roma. One of the items thrown onto the field was an inflatable banana, which landed close to AS Roma's Ivory Coast striker Gervinho. Feyenoord general manager Eric Gudde emphasized, however, that the banana had nothing to do with racism towards dark skinned players. "Racism is no issue here, it was chance that that banana landed near Gervinho." Gudde said according to NU. The match became heated after Feyenoord's Mitchell te Vrede was sent off with a red card after a challenge on Kostas Manolas. His substitute, Erwin Mulder, then also received a red card. Gudde fears that the incidents during this match, which loss disqualified Feyenoord, will once again mean a hefty fine for Feyenoord. "And I'm sick to death of it. We would rather put the money in youth training." Gudde said. "I understand the disappointment, but never legitimizes throwing things at the linesmen. I don't understand that. They know that it will lead to problems. I assume they know the history." According to CNN, the police arrested 17 Dutch residents and one Italian before the match started. Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb put an emergency order in place, giving the police extra powers to detain fans should the match devolve into riots like those in Rome last week. https://twitter.com/adamfrance1972/status/571053435451248640