Amsterdam amateur football team Nieuw Sloten has suspended its entire Saturday competition first 11 for an incident involving a referee this weekend.

‘We want to have lads who can control themselves and the team,’ club chairman Frans Mobron told local broadcaster AT5. ‘If they can’t do that, then we don’t want them.’

The suspension came after the referee in charge of the team’s away game this weekend reported that a red card he had issued was knocked from his hand by players.

Death

‘Many of them swore at me and I was also shaken by the neck,’ he told website Het Amsterdamsche Voetbal.

Nieuw Sloten hit the headlines several years ago when a group of youth team players attacked a referee after a game. Richard Nieuwenhuizen died in hospital the day after being attacked by a group of youths following a B youth match.

The attack on Nieuwenhuizen forced the Dutch football association KNVB to implement new measures, including a hotline, to try to stop off-the-pitch violence.

Spotlight

Mobron confirmed the red card incident had taken place but said there had been no further incident. However, the club is constantly in the spotlight in the wake of  Nieuwenhuizen’s death, he said. ‘Every incident is one too many and will not be tolerated,’ he said.

However, Amsterdam’s alderman for sport Eric van der Burg told the Telegraaf on Monday afternoon he was shocked all the players had been banned by the club, even those who sought to calm the situation.

‘As I understand it from the media, the captain and others tried to intervene,’ he said. ‘If you do your best to keep your team in check, you should be rewarded.’