Saturday, April 27, 2013

Dutch veteran stars honour deceased Richard Nieuwenhuizen

A team riddled with several former Dutch football stars have joined a benefit match against an amateur team and thus gained 56.000 € for the relatives of Dutch assistant referee Richard Nieuwenhuizen, who was bludgeoned to death by young amateur players after a match played in Almere in December 2012.


Ajax Amsterdam's current coach Frank de Boer had the idea to organize this match. Among others, Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Pierre van Hooijdonk and Giovanni van Bronckhorst belonged to the team that won 8:1 and which was managed by Ronald Koeman, European champion in 1988, and Ajax legend Sjaak Swart.
Prior to the match, the chief officer of the Dutch football association KNVB, Michael van Praag, as well as Almere's mayoress Annemarie Jorritsma have plead in favour of a football that is clean of every form of violent behaviour.
The suspected culprits are remaining in custody until their trial that is expected for summer 2013. 

Following the outrage, there has been a widely supported campaign aimed at honouring and respecting the victim.

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