Dutch Consider Suspending Soccer for Half Year

Arie van Eijden, the director of the Ajax Amsterdam soccer club, has recommended that Dutch professional games be suspended for half a year because of increasing violence among fans.

Fourteen spectators, down from the initial estimate of 19, were injured by two homemade bombs thrown during Ajax’s game at Amsterdam Sunday against traditional rival Feyenoord Rotterdam.

The incident, the latest in a series that has earned Dutch fans a reputation for hooliganism, occurred even though there were about 300 police on hand and fans had been searched before they were allowed to enter the packed 27,000-seat stadium.