The club has confirmed this to supporters association Ajax Life. Ajax noticed that the number of signs – mostly made by children – was increasing. It was no longer possible for the players to fulfill all these requests. In addition, when players walked by without handing over a shirt, they were often seen as arrogant.
In addition, Ajax puts forward another reason for banning the signs. The cardboard plates and sheets would be fire sensitive, which entails a safety risk. In the run-up to Saturday’s match for the Johan Cruijff Scale against PSV, many plates have already been confiscated and the club wants to continue that line.
Four days after Ajax, PSV has also banned the ‘begging signs’ for matches in the Philips Stadium in Eindhoven, where Ruud van Nistelrooij’s team will play against FC Emmen and AS Monaco in the coming days.
“PSV is going to give away a shirt of their favorite player every home game among young, creative supporters. In this way, the club wants to counter the trend of young fans piling up in certain places in the final phase to get a shirt. We understand that children crave a shirt and appreciate the creativity, but we have found that it creates situations that are not desirable,” says Sjors van den Boogaart, director of the Philips Stadium. “It is also no longer allowed to bring in signs with which children try to attract attention. We saw more and more children and their parents gathering in certain places and that caused problems with the flow after the final whistle”, continues Van den Boogaart. “In addition, people took a strategic position earlier and that led to complaints from people whose view of the field was limited.”
Despite the drawbacks of this trend, PSV did enjoy the originality that the young fans regularly showed, the club writes on its website. That is why PSV has decided to collect the works of art every home game and to reward the nicest, most original or most creative contribution after every game. He or she will receive the shirt of the favorite player by post. The signs or drawings may be of maximum A3 size.
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