Holland probes racist chants at football match

THE HAGUE: Dutch prosecutors said on Monday they were investigating racist chants that caused a second division match to be halted.

The referee briefly suspended Sunday´s game between Excelsior Rotterdam and Den Bosch and Excelsior winger Ahmad Mendes Moreira walked off the pitch. Moreira said he heard monkey noises and songs about “Black Pete”, a traditional Dutch Christmas-time character that appears in blackface and attracts accusations of racist stereotyping, Dutch media reported.

“We are working with police to see what exactly happened... and examine whether it can be established who were involved,” the Dutch federal prosecution service for the Oost-Brabant region said on Twitter. It was looking at “visual material” to find the culprits, it added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the incident was “really terrible”. He said: “There is no place for racism in this country. Well done to the referee.” The Dutch football association said the incident would be investigated.

The chants were “downright disgusting,” Jan Bluyssen, competition affairs manager of the association, told NOS Radio. “I am just angry and disappointed that this is still happening in 2019,” he added.The association said in a statement that “together with the club, we are now looking at how the perpetrators can be traced and dealt with.”