[divinewind]

At the end of the day the Dutch police can't control a crowd. Had it been in England and a game was called off because we said there might be a riot,could you imagine the European reaction?
Let's try it at the next England friendly and see.

[Hull Baggie]

Its not as if its round the corner. People have paid good money to go out to holland.

Easy to sit at home saying its not last minute.

it's not last minute though is it, it was cancelled the day before! As I also said I think it's a poor decision. But what were they supposed to do? What if they had allowed the game to go on and our fans had been attacked?

[WBAinDEVON]

Oh well at least one Albion fan today I met in Amsterdam goes home happy

[Droitwich Baggie]

Oh well at least one Albion fan today I met in Amsterdam goes home happy

A bit of a blow.
 

[M666EYS]

it's not last minute though is it, it was cancelled the day before! As I also said I think it's a poor decision. But what were they supposed to do? What if they had allowed the game to go on and our fans had been attacked?

All ifs and buts.

Lets ban all football then because of any sort of risk. Risks are at every game, but every gane doesnt cost you 300 quid plus to get to!!

[kc56wba]

All ifs and buts.

Lets ban all football then because of any sort of risk. Risks are at every game, but every gane doesnt cost you 300 quid plus to get to!!

It may not cost 300 quid to get to match but drinking with your old man at an away game can cost nearly as much.

[M666EYS]

It may not cost 300 quid to get to match but drinking with your old man at an away game can cost nearly as much.

Sounds about right mate

[phbaggies]

Got back yesterday, luckily I was there for the Vitesse game Even got on the telly after Rondons goal, front row in me new away top haha), gutted the PSV game was off but got talking to a few Vitesse fans Saturday and they do have previous with PSV, particularly after the cup game last season when Vitesse won 1-0. Also the Venlo boys were in town with Albion. It was brewing a bit Saturday between Venlo and Vitesse fans but never anything other than heated banter. Saw 2 PSV fans too and they were drunk off with their fans as the QPR game was also cancelled due to their fans. Overall a good trip with good weather, but without doubt this cancellation put a dampener on the trip, I still went to the Vitesse/ Porto game but fell asleep in the second half. That being said the Porto fans sang for 90 minutes, had flares, flags etc but never saw one around town in the whole time I was there, it was like they hibernated!!

[Hull Baggie]

All ifs and buts.

Lets ban all football then because of any sort of risk. Risks are at every game, but every gane doesnt cost you 300 quid plus to get to!!

What a ridiculous post.

what's this talk of banning football?? What has paying £300 got to do with cancelling a football match due to the perceived likelihood of trouble from PSV fans?

[phbaggies]

What a ridiculous post.

what's this talk of banning football?? What has paying £300 got to do with cancelling a football match due to the perceived likelihood of trouble from PSV fans?

He has a point, due diligence should have been done and match policed accordingly, there was no police (to my knowledge) at the first games and all 4 sets of fans were in the ground together. They should have looked at it from travelling fans point of view knowing how much it would have cost fans to get there, it was friendly after all so they would have been dealing with a threat of tens, may be hundred 'hooligans'? Surely even the Dutch police could have handled that!
Also, hooligans don't operate in football stadiums (apart from Russia) so it could have still kicked off in Arnhem square or other meeting points if they really wanted to. It was a farcical decision, which cost a lot of us a few quid to see.

[LiamTheBaggie]

It put a dampner of my weekend but it certainly didn't ruin it any stretch.

Lets face it, if you're going to get stranded somewhere then there's no better place than Amsterdam

Great weekend.

[Hull Baggie]

He has a point, due diligence should have been done and match policed accordingly, there was no police (to my knowledge) at the first games and all 4 sets of fans were in the ground together. They should have looked at it from travelling fans point of view knowing how much it would have cost fans to get there, it was friendly after all so they would have been dealing with a threat of tens, may be hundred 'hooligans'? Surely even the Dutch police could have handled that!
Also, hooligans don't operate in football stadiums (apart from Russia) so it could have still kicked off in Arnhem square or other meeting points if they really wanted to. It was a farcical decision, which cost a lot of us a few quid to see.

I agree that due diligence should have been carried out and maybe it was and the Dutch police or the mayor of Arnhem (whichever was responsible for the cancelling of the match)decided that the best thing to do was to cancel it.
My original post was in response to a post by divinewind saying "what would happen if we cancelled a match at the last minute" or something similar. I said that it wasn't last minute as it had been cancelled the day before so not at the last minute, then m666eys started going on about cost and banning games etc.
With the greatest of respect and I obviously have sympathy for all of you who went but how much it cost is irrelevant. Fan safety is the only thing that is relevant. For whatever reason the Dutch authorities felt that they couldn't guarantee fans safety so they called the game off.

[WBAinDEVON]

So whos trophey cabinet looks a bit busier then

[wbasoprano]

It put a dampner of my weekend but it certainly didn't ruin it any stretch.

Lets face it, if you're going to get stranded somewhere then there's no better place than Amsterdam

Great weekend.

The one saving grace of the game being called off was that I didn't bump into you over there 

There were loads of police out in view in Arnhem on Saturday plus plenty of plain clothes police mingled in with fans. If anything did kick off I'm sure they could have handled it. There was a big firm of Arnhem lads out waiting for psv if they did turn up but I wasn't aware of any psv hooligans about.

It put a dampener on the weekend but definitely didn't ruin it, still had a great day on Saturday with the Albion and Venlo lads in Arnhem.

[wbasoprano]

He has a point, due diligence should have been done and match policed accordingly, there was no police (to my knowledge) at the first games and all 4 sets of fans were in the ground together. They should have looked at it from travelling fans point of view knowing how much it would have cost fans to get there, it was friendly after all so they would have been dealing with a threat of tens, may be hundred 'hooligans'? Surely even the Dutch police could have handled that!
Also, hooligans don't operate in football stadiums (apart from Russia) so it could have still kicked off in Arnhem square or other meeting points if they really wanted to. It was a farcical decision, which cost a lot of us a few quid to see.

Was plenty of plain clothes police there mate. One small argument between two of our lot and they all appeared out of nowhere to squash it.

[LiamTheBaggie]

The one saving grace of the game being called off was that I didn't bump into you over there 

There were loads of police out in view in Arnhem on Saturday plus plenty of plain clothes police mingled in with fans. If anything did kick off I'm sure they could have handled it. There was a big firm of Arnhem lads out waiting for psv if they did turn up but I wasn't aware of any psv hooligans about.

It put a dampener on the weekend but definitely didn't ruin it, still had a great day on Saturday with the Albion and Venlo lads in Arnhem.

I was coming down to Arnhem on the Saturday but after we weighed up the travel costs it was about 40 Euros for a return. I did have it relaid back to me that you were in the middle of nowhere 

I also had to delete your comment from my facebook before our lass found it but that's a story you'll no doubt have heard and will continue to hear 

[wbasoprano]

I was coming down to Arnhem on the Saturday but after we weighed up the travel costs it was about 40 Euros for a return. I did have it relaid back to me that you were in the middle of nowhere 

I also had to delete your comment from my facebook before our lass found it but that's a story you'll no doubt have heard and will continue to hear 

We were in Ede, 10 miles outside of Arnhem, was a nice little town. Three of us spent the Friday night there in the main square, about 8 bars all together, nice and chilled out.

Haha noticed that comment had gone 

[Hull Baggie]

We were in Ede, 10 miles outside of Arnhem, was a nice little town. Three of us spent the Friday night there in the main square, about 8 bars all together, nice and chilled out.

Haha noticed that comment had gone 

that's a blast from the past! I used to get off the train there and get a bus to Wageningen to see my girlfriend (well ex girlfriend!)

[WBAinDEVON]

If you want a possible refund but just to let you know its not been decided yet, they are discussing. send your details to Tickets@wbafc.co.uk

[wbasoprano]

that's a blast from the past! I used to get off the train there and get a bus to Wageningen to see my girlfriend (well ex girlfriend!)

Ede is a nice place, very clean and not a dickhead in sight (ruling myself and the two I was with out of course!) We stayed there because it was about a third of the price of staying in Arnhem.

[phbaggies]

The one saving grace of the game being called off was that I didn't bump into you over there 

There were loads of police out in view in Arnhem on Saturday plus plenty of plain clothes police mingled in with fans. If anything did kick off I'm sure they could have handled it. There was a big firm of Arnhem lads out waiting for psv if they did turn up but I wasn't aware of any psv hooligans about.

It put a dampener on the weekend but definitely didn't ruin it, still had a great day on Saturday with the Albion and Venlo lads in Arnhem.

Which one where you then as I was in the same bar with the Venlo lot too for a while, I think it was Bar Absolute? I came in with around 6 of The Vitesse fans who we were having the craic with.

[LiamTheBaggie]

Ede is a nice place, very clean and not a dickhead in sight (ruling myself and the two I was with out of course!) We stayed there because it was about a third of the price of staying in Arnhem.

How unfortunate for the people of Ede when you showed up 

[alex1]

I wonder if there's a case for compensation here. Not just the match tickets but extra night accommodation etc. Somebody should have known this might happen, and should be held to account. It's not good enough to cancel one day beofre, when it should have been perfectly obvious to those in Holland that this was likely.

[costa blanca baggie]

I wonder if there's a case for compensation here. Not just the match tickets but extra night accommodation etc. Somebody should have known this might happen, and should be held to account. It's not good enough to cancel one day beofre, when it should have been perfectly obvious to those in Holland that this was likely.

Somebody should be held to account?? 

[wbasoprano]

Which one where you then as I was in the same bar with the Venlo lot too for a while, I think it was Bar Absolute? I came in with around 6 of The Vitesse fans who we were having the craic with.

Bar absolute. Wearing a bright orange Hugo Boss polo.