The mayor of Utrecht, Sharon Dijksma, has hit back at supporters of the city’s football club after they accused her of ignoring their appeals to discuss her decision to have the opening match of the season played behind closed doors.

In a strongly worded letter, Dijksma said she and her family had suffered intimidation and abuse since she imposed the sanction following riots the home match against Go Ahead Eagles on May 26 last year.

Fans’ organisations SupportersVereniging FC Utrecht and True Support complained that the mayor had rebuffed all attempts at dialogue since a meeting last May.

They told Dijksma she would not be welcome at any end-of-season celebrations if the club, currently in fourth place in the Eredivisie, qualifies for the Champions League or Europa League. “Sharon, we’re done with you,” they wrote.

“No self-reflection”

In her three-page response, Dijksma accused the fans of playing down the riots last May, in which at least 400 people were involved, prompting her to send in the riot police.

“Not a jot of self-reflection, deep and sincere regret or even shame at the behaviour of the extremely violent and unfathomable rioters,” she wrote. “Instead the facts were systematically played down: it was ‘only a few’ (when there were at least 400 deranged idiots).”

She continued: “Mayors who dare to take steps against excesses in football have to make great personal sacrifices. Intimidation and threats of violence are all part of what I have had to deal with.”

On the day of the first match of the season against PEC Zwolle on August 11, which was played behind closed doors on the mayor’s orders, fans circulated messages on social media to “visit Dijksma at home”, she said.

Members of the hardcore fans’ section De Bunnikside stood in her street in their black hooded tops as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Photo of children

“Is it not enough that these kinds of public messages directly affect the safety of me and my children and my freedom to move around?” she asked.

Dijksma also demanded that fans take down a photograph of her three children from social media. “Aside from the fact that this photo is my private property, I expect my children to be kept out of the discussion,” she said.

Other politicians came out in support of the mayor. VVD MP Eric van der Burg said: “What an unbelievably good letter!” while the mayor of Stadskanaal, Klaas Sloots, called Dijksma “a mayor who states clearly how things are and draws a line while still keeping the door open.”