I would walk 500 Miles - just to see the Dutch Cup Final

It’s been just under a year since my last posts on this blog, and I cannot say much has changed in the world of Dutch football. Another ho-hum season, made only very slightly exciting by another too-little-too-late effort by Ajax, which was never a particularly formidable threat to PSV’s fourth straight championship.

Despite of the replica of last season sans the actual final-day excitement, there has been plenty to write about. I could give you tons of reasons why I haven’t, none of them particularly false or true, but let us not dwell on past mistakes or year-long absences. Fact is, a few people have encouraged me to pick this blog up again, for which I should probably thank them as well as hit them over the head with a blunt object, because I intend this blog to start taking up a considerable amount of my precious time once more, as it did when I first started it.

Their personal encouragements alone, however, would possibly not have been enough to make me to go through the embarrassing ritual of restarting a blog and falling down on my knees and beg you to start reading a blog written by someone who apparently can just take off for a year. It is the enormous contrast between the last two posts I’ve written and the one I could write today that brings me to actually write it.

In the previous two posts, you’ll find an account of my first Dutch cup experience. This Sunday, I’m about to visit my third Dutch cup final, as my team, Roda JC, have weaselled themselves through the backdoor into the apotheosis of Dutch Cup football. I could write about how miraculous it actually is that my team has even made the final; I could write about the explosion of joy and disorientation I felt when our goalkeeper scored in the dying seconds of an early-rounder to send it to extra time. I could write about the entire feel-good story which has led my team to the cup final. But I’m not going to.

For this is the first Dutch cup final that I will attend in which Roda plays the occupant of the stadium in which the game is annually contested, Feyenoord. In an effort to mimic the English tradition of hosting the Cup final in the same stadium every year, the Dutch Football association apparently considered the fact that Wembley-stadium is not home to one club in particular to be but a minor detail. There is, however, no national stadium in the Netherlands, so the site for the Dutch cup final was set in what is, without a single doubt, the prettiest stadium in all of Holland; de Kuip, in Rotterdam.

Effectively, this means that whenever Feyenoord reaches the Cup final, they play a home game. This simple formula is not acknowledged by everyone. Many will point out that a far greater number of fans from the other team is granted access to the stadium than during actual regular season home games. This much is true. The ticket allocation is even, with an even number of tickets going to the fans of both teams. The fact that the third part of the tickets, which does not go to the fans but is sold to Sponsors and such, will inevitably find their way to Feyenoord fans as well, is seldom mentioned. Theoretically, there is equal opportunity for fans of both teams to attain those tickets. Fans of the team which Feyenoord face, would, however, be seated in a section filled almost to the brim with Feyenoord fans. Sadly, this is still not a safe option in this country, a situation which, by the way, is not exclusive to Rotterdam.

So theoretically, this is not an away game for my team. I would, however, like to ask all of you to consider the number of times in which you could only get a ticket for your club’s home game, if you also bought the mandatory transportation ticket. Thousands of Roda fans have only been able to secure a ticket if they bought the so-called combi-ticket; this includes a ticket for the final and a ticket for the bus or train, which leaves from the south of Limburg to Rotterdam and returns there when the game is finished. This trip, which is completely escorted by police, is mandatory. If a fan wants to make this trip by himself, say, by car, he will not be able to get a ticket to the game.

This irks me in particular, because I don’t actually live anywhere near the city in which my club plays. In fact; I live about 150 kilometers closer to the site of the final, meaning I have to travel to Limburg, then by mandatory train to the final in Rotterdam and back to Limburg, and then back home again, which is positively the furthest and most elaborate I have ever travelled to see a game which is supposedly not an away game. Meanwhile, Feyenoord fans can go however they damn well please.

All of this, obviously, is a far cry from the previous Dutch cup finals I visited. Yet all I can and will do is rant about this right here and travel over 800 KM to see a game that takes place less than 45 minutes away from my house. Not an away game, indeed.

- So there it is: my first post in just under a year. Check back Sunday morning (this Sunday that is, not the one a year from now) for an extensive account of my pre-game nervous breakdown and Sunday evening for my post-game reflection. In the meanwhile, you’re welcome to discuss the current Cup hosting situation, over here or wherever really, in the comments section.