Incidents on the field increasingly halting amateur football matches; More red cards

The KNVB had to halt 1,864 amateur football matches last season because of incidents on the field, such as fights and serious verbal abuse. That is ten percent more than the previous season, RTL Nieuws reports based on figures from the Dutch football association. The number of red cards increased from 11,553 to 12,226.

“Problems that play a broader role in society are expressed in amateur football,” the KNVB said. Matches often need to be halted due to “discrimination, insults, or other hurtful expressions.” Coaches and referees also reported more issues from players with “difficulty accepting authority.” In the 2022/23 season, the KNVB stopped 1,678 matches.

Despite the 10 percent increase in stopped matches, “the vast majority of matches went off without any problems,” the football association stressed. Last season, there were almost 780,000 football matches played by over 63,000 football teams.

The incidents on and around the field also led to more disciplinary cases, often due to physical or verbal violence between players. Last season, there were 3,501 cases, 334 more than in the previous season.

The KNVB has taken several measures to enforce more respect on the field. From next season, only the captain of the team may discuss a decision with the referee, for example. This rule also applied to professional footballers at the European Championship in Germany this summer.