Amsterdam police are a disgrace

cleavers said:
We saw the "riot" from about 30 yards away, in a bar down the alleyway next to the Jolly Sailor. We could see it was likely as early as 2pm, as far too many were pissed/stoned, in far too small an area. It was a great atmosphere at that point, because by and large the Ajax fans were still at work/home, but once they came out to play, it was always likely to go off.

We saw the first bottles or glasses get thrown, and then the horses come in, at that point we knew it was time to move elsewhere, so we found a bar nearer Dam square, and sat in there chatting with Ajax fans. About 6 we went for some food on the walk up to the station.

Having read the email from City to the supporters, we also decided that getting up to the stadium early would be a sensible idea, it said in there that there would be 3 security checks at the ground. Anyone who read that should have worked out that the normal practise of arriving 15 minutes prior to kick off was going to be a problem, and doing so with several hundred pissed/stoned football fans was likely to cause disorder. I'm not condoning what I heard went on in the queue outside, and there is clearly not adequate turnstiles for 2700 fans.

My own experience with their police was that we had no problem with any of them, we went by car, and went and positioned our car in a car park near the ground at lunchtime as we were heading home straight after the game. We parked in a multi storey east of the stadium, and got the metro into the city. When we travalled back about 6:30 ish it was full and mixed, and there was no problem at all. When we got off the train we went back a station from the main Arena station (the previous one was actually nearest the away end), and when we got off the poice directed us to the sway end, but we wanted to put some stuff in the car, we had no bother there, or getting through the cordens.

I'm sorry that so many people seem to have had issues, but from past experience, and lots of hindsight, most of them can be avoided if you keep your senses about you.
Click to expand...
Pretty much this, did the district in the afternoon it's not that hard to not get involved locked in a pup with a load of Ajax and had a laugh till it was over
 
cleavers said:
Having read the email from City to the supporters, we also decided that getting up to the stadium early would be a sensible idea, it said in there that there would be 3 security checks at the ground. Anyone who read that should have worked out that the normal practise of arriving 15 minutes prior to kick off was going to be a problem, and doing so with several hundred pissed/stoned football fans was likely to cause disorder. I'm not condoning what I heard went on in the queue outside, and there is clearly not adequate turnstiles for 2700 fans.



I'm sorry that so many people seem to have had issues, but from past experience, and lots of hindsight, most of them can be avoided if you keep your senses about you.
Click to expand...
whilst agreeing with most of what you said, the conditions getting into the ground were appalling
i had no email from City for some reason, and I got to the ground at 7.45
we had no help in finding the away end after asking several stewards, police and home fans

when we found the entrance it was 8pm
we got in our seats thirty seconds into the game after nearly forty five minutes of trying to protect my wife from being crushed
as we got nearer to the entrance i couldn't physically hold on to her anymore and we split up
when i got in she was complaining to a steward about the way she had been 'handled' during the search and felt quite degraded
meanwhile i got through without being searched and yet had a laptop bag full of stuff! but they were beginning to panic by then
woke up this morning feeling like i had been in combat, aching from head to foot
just because we are football fans we don't need to be treated like animals
 
squirtyflower said:
cleavers said:
Having read the email from City to the supporters, we also decided that getting up to the stadium early would be a sensible idea, it said in there that there would be 3 security checks at the ground. Anyone who read that should have worked out that the normal practise of arriving 15 minutes prior to kick off was going to be a problem, and doing so with several hundred pissed/stoned football fans was likely to cause disorder. I'm not condoning what I heard went on in the queue outside, and there is clearly not adequate turnstiles for 2700 fans.



I'm sorry that so many people seem to have had issues, but from past experience, and lots of hindsight, most of them can be avoided if you keep your senses about you.
Click to expand...
whilst agreeing with most of what you said, the conditions getting into the ground were appalling
i had no email from City for some reason, and I got to the ground at 7.45
we had no help in finding the away end after asking several stewards, police and home fans

when we found the entrance it was 8pm
we got in our seats thirty seconds into the game after nearly forty five minutes of trying to protect my wife from being crushed
as we got nearer to the entrance i couldn't physically hold on to her anymore and we split up
when i got in she was complaining to a steward about the way she had been 'handled' during the search and felt quite degraded
meanwhile i got through without being searched and yet had a laptop bag full of stuff! but they were beginning to panic by then
woke up this morning feeling like i had been in combat, aching from head to foot
just because we are football fans we don't need to be treated like animals
Click to expand...
I totally agree, I was just putting up the other side.

No idea why you didn't get the email, maybe I got yours as I got it twice, and I did read it. Luckily as I said above we'd been to the ground earlier to park the car, and had sussed out the best aproach to getting there and in (and it wasn't getting off the metro at the Arena station, the one previous begining with D was closer to the away end).

We all knew though that there were going to be a lot there without tickets, a lot pissed/stoned, that Ajax fans (some) have a reputation, and that continental police don't usually hang around if it starts, added to that the stadium being 10km from the town centre.

We therefore made the decision to get to the ground reasonably early, and leave the busiest area of blues when the Ajax lot started turning up (the vast majority of who were excellent, and gave no hint of any trouble, despite what liam says), before it kicked off. We also knew it was better to get off at the station before the main Arena station fortunately, which saved quite a bit of walking through the home fans (though this was unfortunately not in the email).

So unlike many we had a pretty reasonable experience, but it was clear even when we got through the outer and inner cordon, and to the inadequate number of turnstiles an hour before kick off, and still had to queue, that it would be a mess outside before kick off. The stewards did appear to be a bit over the top with the searches even then.
 
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