Dutch Eredivisie match round moved for Nuclear Security Summit

The Nuclear Security Summit due in The Hague on March 24-25, 2014, caused a cancellation of a complete match round in the Dutch Eredivisie, Dutch media reported on Wednesday. Newspaper De Telegraaf said that mayors of the Almelo, Groningen, Waalwijk, Eindhoven, Heerenveen, Enschede, Deventer, Utrecht and Alkmaar, have decided to cancel all the soccer league matches on March 21-22-23 because of insufficient amount of police available for security. The match between AZ and Ajax on March 26 in Alkmaar in the semifinals of the Dutch Cup will be a problem as well. The Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the largest gathering of its kind ever held in the Netherlands, is expected to receive 58 world leaders, 5,000 delegates and 3,000 journalists. Security at the summit requires a huge police deployment, resulting in insufficient police for other events like soccer matches. The cancellation causes a problem for the Dutch football association KNVB, because the agenda leaves little room for new dates. The KNVB on Wednesday announced its disapproval with the decision of the mayors. The KNVB said that it is still negotiating with parties involved, the Ministry of Security and Justice, the police and the mayors. "The KNVB already started the preparation of the fixtures for the current season 2013/2014 in October 2012," said the KNVB statement. "In order to reduce the pressure on the police in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, the KNVB decided to plan only low risk matches outside the major cities (The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam). In the weekend prior to this top. The KNVB already met the wishes of the government."