According to the Dutch newspaper Trouw, the PVV, also known as The Freedom Party, proposed a ban on immigrants in amateur soccer leagues in the Hague, claiming that soccer clubs with many immigrants are facing violence and “Islamization.” The group withdrew that proposal when it appeared to provoke outrage among other politicians.
The Hague PVV party asserted that many soccer clubs with a high number of immigrant members must deal with violence on the field and a shortage of volunteers.
The Councilor of Sports Karsten Klein responded by calling their claim “utter nonsense.” “Violence in soccer is definitely not an immigrant problem, as the Freedom Party would like people to believe,” he said. Soccer clubs have to be accessible to everyone, according to Klein.
The conflation of soccer violence with Islamicization and the influence of immigrants along with the proposed ban constitute an absurd attempt to polarize opinion on a topic as localized and unpolitical as amateur sports leagues. Luckily, the Dutch national soccer association, the KNVB disagrees: “Soccer plays a significant role in integration in the Netherlands,” it claimed in a statement responding to the ban.