On the evening of May 14, angry Groningen fans threw smoke bombs on the field to protest the relegation of the home team. The move caused the match against Ajax to be immediately canceled.

Pillars of black smoke were seen blanketing the Euroborg stadium. Downstairs and in the stands, security personnel had difficulty disposing of the smoke bombs.

According to Bleacher Report, a part of Groningen’s enthusiastic fans created chaos and the referee team decided to cancel the match after only 10 minutes.

The Groningen fan’s move comes after the home team was relegated to the Eredivisie this season. Last week, they only had a draw with Go Ahead Eagles despite needing a win to keep their hopes of relegation alive.

After 32 matches, Groningen only won 4 wins, drew 7 and lost up to 21 matches, earning 19 points. They have ranked 17/18 teams at Eredivisie 2022/23, 10 points behind Excelsior’s safe position when the season only has 2 rounds to end.

Groningen has been in the Eredivisie for 23 consecutive years. The last time they had to play in the lower division was in the 1999/2000 season. More broadly since 1980, Groningen has only been relegated once in 1998, spending two seasons here before returning to the Dutch number one league.

This season, Arjen Robben’s youth team did not have the necessary stability. They fired coach Frank Worthuth last November. Van der Ree came on but failed to improve the situation, having only won one victory.

Mads captain Bech Sorensen bitterly said: “I’m very hurt, so is the whole team. I want to apologize to the fans. We are all disappointed and have bad feelings. We need to play better than this and Learn from your mistakes to come back stronger.”