Violence, threats and the derby between IJsselmeer birds and Spakenburg

In November last year there is actually nothing wrong with football player Vince Gino Dekker of amateur club SV Spakenburg. Under a photo on the Instagram page of Harde Kern Spakenburg, a group of young fans already controversial at that time, the former player of Jong Ajax is applauded. The group is happy that trainer Eric Meijers is gone and that Dekker is back in the starting lineup under the new coach. The attacker immediately gives two assists in the home game against Noordwijk, allowing Spakenburg to win another match in the Second Division, the highest amateur level.

But when Dekker announces two months later that he will make the switch to rival IJsselmeervogels in the summer, everything changes. He is threatened, nightly phone calls are no exception in the weeks that follow. His family is also being harassed. During the halftime of an exhibition game against Quick Boys in February, he was even physically attacked.

At that time, Spakenburg had been struggling with the group of young people for some time, some of whom are not even members of the club. They cause problems around matches, compete with opponents’ supporters. The board of Spakenburg sees the group grow in two years’ time. Among the dozens of young people are increasingly unknown faces.

They know each other from supporter groups in professional football, most do not have a link with Spakenburg, the board knows. Social control is usually high in the fishing village – we know us. But these are boys from outside, who cannot be called to order by family or bystanders, according to conversations with various parties involved.

Last September, Spakenburg chose to deny part of the group access to its own sports park. The club means: we distance ourselves from you. But that doesn’t have the intended effect. In the months that follow, board members and volunteers are repeatedly intimidated and threatened. The low point follows at the beginning of this year, when an iron bar is thrown through the windshield at a driver’s home. The continuity of the club is at stake, Spakenburg writes in a press release. Who wants to volunteer? The Blues to be?

In fishing sheds, ‘blue’ and ‘red’ supporters regularly fillet the day’s catch together

Still no transfer

Meanwhile, the situation around player Vince Gino Dekker takes a striking turn. Three days before the derby between IJsselmeervogels and Spakenburg, the latter club reports on the website that Dekker will not leave after all. No switch to The Reds† The threats are the main reason to stay, writes Spakenburg.

This cool Tuesday evening, Dekker will simply play in blue against red at De Westmaat sports park. He did not expect a warm welcome for his player, said coach Chris de Graaf van Spakenburg before the game The Telegraph† Something that, according to him, Dekker only liked.

There is always hatred and envy between the two village associations, which share the large car park in front of the sports park. “But 99.9 percent of the time it is a healthy rivalry,” says Peter Heinen, board member technical affairs at IJsselmeervogels. Blue and red come together everywhere. At work, in the pub, on birthdays – the chairman of Spakenburg is the uncle of the chairman of IJsselmeervogels. And in the fish sheds, ‘blue’ and ‘red’ supporters are filleting the day’s catch with sharp knives.

No flute concerts

It’s as if the home crowd wants to emphasize the healthy rivalry between the village rivals this Tuesday evening. The image that both clubs sometimes have to deal with difficult fans, but that the vast majority get along well – the existence of one club gives the other an identity. Also in the village itself, men with red and blue scarves are mixed up before the duel. No extra whistle concerts at a ball contact by Dekker, just a slightly louder boo when the wing attacker loses a duel.

“I see this as an incident,” says Heinen about Dekker’s decision to regard his contract as “void”. IJsselmeervogels has since received a letter from Dekker’s lawyer. On a managerial level, both clubs usually get on well with each other. A gentlemen’s agreement prescribes that the clubs will not talk to players if they themselves have not yet indicated that they want to leave – something that Dekker did. The associations work together, also with the police and the municipality, to ensure that football runs as smoothly as possible. Extra safety measures have been taken in consultation for the game this Tuesday evening.

Heinen is surprised by the fact that Dekker continues to play at Spakenburg. “It is twofold,” says general affairs board member Jim Donkers van Spakenburg. On the one hand, the group of ‘fans’ may now feel that their actions have helped, he realizes. “But Dekker actually has nothing to do with them. After a game he is in the canteen with only people who think he is a very good player.”

Red and blue scarves are mixed up in the village before the game

Even geen derby

A switch between the two clubs remains sensitive – in all those years there have been only about thirty players who have played for both associations. Around the turn of the century, the KNVB decided not to let IJsselmeervogels and Spakenburg play together in a class for a while. Reason: Tensions in the village ran high after two players moved from the red side to the blue side.

“But even then it mainly remained with yelling and cursing,” says Hans Klippus, who wrote his book The Derby, about the battle between the two associations, won the Nico Scheepmaker Prize in 2007. “This violence is of a completely different order. The intensity of the threats now was not experienced in the village in the past.”

The Spakenburg club does not know what else it can do – besides refuse access to its own sports park – to keep the agitators away. A judicial investigation is underway, including into the events surrounding the practice match with Quick Boys in February – when Vince Gino Dekker was physically assaulted. In amateur football, a stadium or terrain ban has no consequences for other sports parks, says Jim Donkers. Effective punishment is therefore difficult. “They can still travel to away games on their own bus.”