Death of Richard Nieuwenhuizen

Silent march of 9 December 2012 to commemorate the death of Nieuwenhuizen

Richard Nieuwenhuizen (aged 41) was a Dutch man who was attacked and fatally injured on 2 December 2012 after serving as a volunteer linesman at a youth football match in Almere in which his youngest son was playing for the home team. The attack on him, for which teenage players on the opposing team and one parent were subsequently convicted, and his death the following day have led to widespread protests and discussion in the Netherlands about violence associated with youth football.

Attack and death

Nieuwenhuizen, 41 years old and a resident of Almere, had three sons, the oldest a former coach at SC Buitenboys, the local football club, the youngest a player on one of the club's under-17 teams.[1] On 2 December 2012 he officiated as a linesman at a home match played by this team against a team from Nieuw Sloten, a club with players from various parts of the Nieuw-West district of Amsterdam. After the match, he was attacked and knocked down by several Nieuw Sloten players; parents intervened and he stood up, but was again knocked down and kicked in the head. He refused medical attention and went home, returning to watch a later match, but collapsed.[1] In hospital his condition worsened and he died the following evening, 3 December, as a result of the injury to his head.[1][2][3][4][5]

Trial and verdict

The trial began on 29 May 2013 in Lelystad.[6][7] On 17 June 2013, six teenage players and a 50-year-old man, the father of one of them, were convicted of manslaughter. El-Hasan D., the father, was sentenced to six years in prison; five of the teenagers to the maximum of two years in youth detention, six months suspended; and one, the man's son, to one year, two months suspended. An additional teenager, aged 15, was found innocent of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 days, 17 suspended, for assault on a goalkeeper.[2][8][9][10] The teenagers had been 15–17 years old at the time.[11] The defendants had argued that Nieuwenhuizen's death was due to a medical condition, with testimony by a British forensic pathologist, Christopher Milroy.[2][4][5][6][7][12]

Public response

Aggressive behaviour by parents at youth football matches has been a concern for some time in the Netherlands, and has given rise to a television programme, Heibel langs de lijn (Trouble Along the Field), on which parents' behaviour is shown at their children's request, and two television advertising campaigns by an organisation called SIRE, in 2007 with the slogan "Give children their game back" and four years later connecting parents' work frustrations with their mistreatment of their children at the weekend, with the slogan "Leave Monday to Friday at home on Saturday".[1] There had also been a previous death a year earlier in Amsterdam, when a youth football player kicked a 77-year-old supporter of the opposing team in the chest, but that was ruled manslaughter.[1] The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) had already introduced a programme to help amateur clubs promote respect, additional training for referees, mandatory punishment for players abusing officials and a disciplinary team which reviews events after each weekend.[1]

The KNVB cancelled all amateur fixtures the weekend after Nieuwenhuizen's death, the first such cancellation since the 1973 oil crisis, and took out full-page newspaper ads reading Zonder respect geen voetbal (Without respect, no football).[1] A minute's silence was observed at professional matches, and players wore armbands.[13][14] SC Buitenboys held a silent march on 9 December in which 12,000 people took part.[1][2][6] They also planned a memorial match and a permanent memorial and announced that they would make the "Without respect, no football" slogan a binding guideline. Many clubs put up signs with the slogan.[7] The Nieuw Sloten club temporarily cancelled all football,[15] and two teams announced they would leave the club.[1]

The deliberate attack on Nieuwenhuizen caused widespread shock and was covered in the international press.[2][6][7][11] A moment of silence was held before the kickoff at the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup in honor of Nieuwenhuizen.[7][9][13][16] Dutch journalist Maarten Bax reviewed the events and its aftermath in the book Wat een kutvoetbal, hè? Het turbulente jaar na de dood van grensrechter Richard Nieuwenhuizen (Some sucky soccer, huh? The turbulent year after the death of linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen) on 16 October 2013, its title referring to Nieuwenhuizen's supposed last words.[17]

Dutch politician Geert Wilders tweeted that Moroccans were responsible for the violence in youth football, and the large number of immigrants in Nieuw-West was a factor in discussions after the attack on Nieuwenhuizen.[1] Members of various Dutch political parties debated how best to characterise and respond to problems caused by some Moroccans.[18] Most of the attackers were of Moroccan origin.[19]

Despite the publicity over Nieuwenhuizen's death, an official was attacked at an amateur game in Arnhem later the same month.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Stuart James, "Richard Nieuwenhuizen: Dutch football and the death of a linesman. A country and a sport are still trying to come to terms with how volunteering to officiate at his son's club cost a man his life", The Guardian, 21 December 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Majid Mohamed, "Richard Nieuwenhuizen death: Six teenagers and 50-year-old father convicted of manslaughter in shocking case of referee killed over a game of football: Death of official who was volunteering at his son's junior club match shocked the Netherlands", The Independent, 17 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Club in shock after Dutch linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen is kicked to death after football match: Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41, an assistant referee for the Dutch youth club Buitenboys was rushed to hospital after being punched and kicked by players from opponents Nieuw-Sloten", The Telegraph, 4 December 2012 (video).
  4. 1 2 Associated Press, "Youth soccer players, father convicted in Netherlands in beating death of volunteer linesman", Fox News.com, 17 June 2013.
  5. 1 2 Peter Zantingh, "Wat gebeurde er bij Buitenboys - Nieuw Sloten? Vandaag begint de rechtszaak", NRC Handelsblad, 29 May 2013 (Dutch)
  6. 1 2 3 4 Sterling, Associated Press, "Trial begins in death of linesman: Seven teenagers, one adult charged with manslaughter in the Netherlands", Montreal Gazette, 29 May 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Agence France Presse and Bonnie Malkin, "Dutch teens and father go on trial over death of linesman: Seven Dutch teens and a father will go on trial today over the death an amateur football linesman, a killing that sent shockwaves around the Netherlands and the world", The Telegraph, 29 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "Seven men convicted following death of Dutch linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen - video", The Guardian, 18 June 2013.
  9. 1 2 Agence France Presse, "Dutch teens jailed for beating linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen to death", news.com.au, 17 June 2013.
  10. ↑ Bianca Brasser, "Xandra Nieuwenhuizen: 'Het rouwproces kan nu beginnen': De rechtbank in Lelystad oordeelde gisteren dat zeven verdachten schuldig zijn aan de dood van grensrechter Richard Nieuwenhuizen uit Almere", Metro, 18 June 2013 (Dutch)
  11. 1 2 Agence France Presse, "Getöteter Linienrichter: Lange Haftstrafen", Panorama, Berliner Zeitung, 17 June 2013 (German)
  12. ↑ "Linesman may not have died from being kicked: new report", Dutch News, 24 May 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Three charged over Dutch linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen death", BBC News Europe, 6 December 2012.
  14. ↑ "Duels afgelast vanwege dood grensrechter", De Telegraaf, 4 December 2012 (Dutch)
  15. ↑ "Voorlopig geen voetbal voor Nieuw Sloten", De Telegraaf, 3 December 2012 (Dutch)
  16. ↑ Alastair Himmer and Patrick Johnston, "Blatter shocked at Dutch linesman death", Reuters, December 6, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Wat een kutvoetbal, hè?", Van Gennep Boeken, 16 October 2013.
  18. ↑ "'Problemen niet marokkaniseren'", Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, 4 April 2013 (Dutch)
  19. ↑ Svebor Kranjc, Reuters, "Dutch teen footballers jailed for kicking linesman to death", London Free Press, 17 June 2013.
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