KNVB

The captains of the 18 Dutch clubs in the Eredivisie made contact to discuss the measures against the coronavirus being extended to April 28 and decided that they want the season to end with immediate effect. They consider the risk of infection to be too great. Ajax director Marc Overmars also wants the season to end, the Telegraaf reports.

The number of people who have tested positive in the Netherlands for coronavirus rose by 1,019 to 7,431 in the past 24 hours. Of that total, 434 patients have died, an increase of 78 from statistics release on Wednesday, public health agency RIVM said.

The European football championship, set to take place in June and July, has been delayed one full year. Three different matches in the early rounds of the Euro 2020 were to be played at the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.

European football association UEFA hosted a meeting on Tuesday to decide what to do about the upcoming tournament, as more countries ban large gatherings to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.  "This decision was taken unanimously by UEFA and the 55 affiliated unions, including the KNVB," the Dutch football association said in a statement.

All football matches scheduled to take place in the Netherlands will continue as planned, except for a handful of matches that were to be played in Noord-Brabant. The decision was made at an emergency meeting held at the headquarters of Dutch football association KNVB, about the same time that health agency RIVM revealed that 503 people in the country have tested positive for coronavirus.

Feyenoord is all set to face FC Utrecht in the finals of the KNVB Beker, the annual Dutch football tournament, after they beat NAC Breda 7-1 last night in Rotterdam. Captain Steven Berghuis was instrumental to the victory, scoring a hat trick.

The Dutch football federation the KNVB have agreed to meet with Vitesse Arnhem after the club brought out a statement criticizing recent decisions by the video assistant referee, otherwise known as VAR, against them. Recently Vitesse said it was frustrated by inconsistent decisions against the club in its matches against PSV Eindhoven and PEC Zwolle.

Ajax fans will be accepted in the football stadium of Rotterdam-based arch rivals Feyenoord should both teams land in the finals for the KNVB Cup. Both teams are in the semi-finals for the Dutch trophy and would play each other at De Kuip stadium should they advance

Dutch football association KNVB and the government are finalizing the measures they are taking to fight racism in football stadiums, and will likely present them next week, newspaper AD reports. Their measures include more cameras and a football app to report abuses, among other things.

Two incidents of football supporters shouting racist remarks at players this weekend left Prime Minister Mark Rutte furious. In both cases black players were either called or linked to Zwarte Piet - a blackface character from the Netherlands' Sinterklaas celebration. "It makes you hopeless, doesn't it", Rutte said on Monday, RTL Nieuws reports. "This society cannot go further if we treat each other this way."

“Downright disgusting”, is what Dutch football association KNVB called racist chants by FC Den Bosch fans directed at Excelsior player Ahmad Mendes Moreira on Sunday. “This does not belong on a football field”, Jan Bluyssen, KNVB’s competition affairs manager, said to NOS.

On Sunday referee Laurens Gerrets had to stop a match between FC Den Bosch and Excelsior for ten minutes, due to FC Den Bosch fans’ behavior. Songs about Zwarte Piet and monkey chanting were heard from the fanatic M-side every time Moreira had the ball, according to the broadcaster.

The number of Dutch sports clubs that banned smoking more than doubled this past year. Currently the Netherlands counts 1,152 sports clubs and associations that banned smoking partly or completely, compared to around 550 last year, RTL Nieuws reports.

The number of football clubs that banned smoking increased in the same line as other sports clubs, from 208 last year to 432 now. 94 football clubs banned smoking completely, and 338 others are partly smoke-free, football association KNVB said to the broadcaster.