Richard Nieuwenhuizen, a father who had been a linesman in his son’s soccer game, died on Monday after being beaten and kicked to death by youth players in the Netherlands onSunday. Three players ages 15 and 16 years old from the Nieuw-Sloten club began punching and kicking the 41-year-old, whose son played for the opposing team, Buitenboys, and were later arrested andthen taken into police custody.
“That kids of 15 or 16 are playing football, you come to watch and see something like that … This is not just a tragedy for Almere and our club, but forDutch football in general. This can’t happen on the football field,” Marcel Oost, the chairman of Buitenboys club, told Dutch broadcaster NOS. For its part, Nieuw-Sloten responded bybanning the players involved in the incident, withdrawing from the league in which the game took place and temporarily suspending all their operations as a club.