Plans to transfer the €30m cost of policing football matches to the clubs themselves will be disastrous for the game, according to football association director Bert van Oostveen.

Speaking at a KNVB meeting on Monday night, Van Oostveen said the idea is ‘a sword of Damocles hanging over professional football’.
The clubs have put a great deal of effort into reducing problems with hooliganism, Van Oostveen said. ‘We don’t understand where this figure comes from. We put policing costs inside the stadiums at a maximum €2.5m.’
Van Oostveen pointed out that the country’s 34 professional clubs made a combined loss of €52m last year. ‘We are reducing that by making drastic savings. But if you add on €30m, that is the end of professional football,’ he is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.
The plan was agreed by the five-party coalition which worked out a package of austerity measures last month.