Rotterdamโs mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has said banishing flares from football matches is an almost impossible task because fans smuggled the explosives into the stadium in โintimate partsโ of their body.
The Dutch cup final on Sunday was twice suspended after fans of the two clubs, Feyenoord and NEC Nijmegen, set off fireworks and flares in Rotterdamโs De Kuip stadium.
Referee Serdar Gรถzรผbรผyรผk called the players off the pitch after 13 minutes after thick clouds of smoke billowed across the pitch from the stands, while in the second half the players spent 20 minutes in the dressing room after a banner was set on fire behind one of the goals.
Aboutaleb pleaded with fans to stop bringing flares to matches, but admitted that there was little in practice that he could do to stop them.
โI was told that the toilets behind the stands were full of condoms that they stuffed the flares in so they could hide them in intimate places,โ the mayor said, adding that both men and women used the technique.
Cavity searches at football matches would be inappropriate and violate fansโ privacy, Aboutaleb said, while โChineseโ methods such as using X-ray devices โgo too far for meโ.
The football association KNVB said it would not comment on โspeculation about how fireworks were able to get into the stadiumโ, but admitted it was limited by privacy rules.
โWeโre not allowed to frisk intimate areas,โ a spokesman said. โIt seems supporters are inventive and have found all kinds of ways in the past to smuggle fireworks into stadiumsโ.
Feyenoord won the match 1-0 to claim the Dutch cup for the 14th time, while NEC Nijmegenโs wait for a first win goes on after they took the runnerโs-up medals for the fifth time.