Vitesse Arnhem are risking possible crowd issues after standing firm on the minimum allocation they have to give of only 1,400.

If you scan social media you would assume that half of the population of Southampton is heading to Arnhem for the Europa League match on the 6th August, add to that the fact that most of them by their own admission will have no chance of qualifying for a ticket via Southampton Football Club and have already bought tickets in the home section on line and you can see a major issue in the pipeline.

By conservative estimates there could be as many as 2,000 Saints supporters in Arnhem either without a match ticket or with a ticket for the home areas and that could spell trouble for the Dutch police.

The real bugbear though is that the stadium is likely to be far from full, despite holding 25,000 Vitesse have not had an average crowd of above the 20,000 mark for many a year, there are likely to be swathes of empty seats on the night, including two blocks presumably being used as a buffer zone between the Saints fans and Vitesse supporters.

If Vitesse had allocated these tickets to Saints then it would have taken a fair chunk of Saints supporters off the streets and out of the bars whilst the game was on.

Instead the Arnhem police are going to be stretched to not only deal with issues within the ground with so many Saints fans possibly in the home areas, but to police the City Centre where there will be a lot of Saints supporters in the bars or in the proposed fan zone.

The upshot though is that the more Saints fans there are who are not in the ground but in the bars increases the potential for trouble.

Perhaps Vitesse will come to their senses and increase the allocation but I doubt it, it seems Saints have tried their best to convince them hence the delay in getting out ticket news, but it has fallen on deaf ears.

Photo: Action Images

WestEndBoy added 17:26 - Jul 22 Why keep running these stories and highlighting the fact even more so?
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WestEndBoy added 17:26 - Jul 22 Why keep running these stories and highlighting the fact even more so?
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SaintBrock added 18:24 - Jul 22 Quite. It's almost as if he wishes there will be fighting and other stuff like that. There won't be, this is Holland and they love football and who gives a stuff about the Europa League anyway, certainly not enough to end up warring over it. There was no crowd trouble at Derby after the away leg of the play-off semi-final when 4000 of us went up there so no chance in Holland, too many Coffee shops for that.

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WestEndBoy added 18:29 - Jul 22 Just wish people would buy their tickets in Home end and keep quiet, instead of pasting it all over internet. Half these stories appear on News Now etc. which im sure Hants constabulary and intelligence etc read. People ruining it for others. Souns to me like Vietesse are quite happy to just take the cash and run the risk but we seem to be trying our best to ruin that

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SonicBoom added 20:10 - Jul 22 More tickets means less fans in the town. Is that not right? And if you think that nick writing about it will either start or prevent trouble then I fear you credit him with a little too much influence.... I doubt there will be any trouble but allocating seats rather than leaving them empty would lower what risk there is surely?
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Ddobsy added 20:49 - Jul 22 Yes, we could sell more tickets but then could the ground segregate effectively? If not they've one liable for any problems. Which to be fair there shouldn't be. This is a decent club in a nice town and the Durch are great. Most this isn't the 1990's or anywhere near the 1970's. A
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WestEndBoy added 21:03 - Jul 22 Don't think it will cause trouble but will put a lot more pressure on vietesse to put more stringent controls in place for stopping away fans getting in home areas with these daily updates of he many people are commenting on social media
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SaintinHolland added 21:42 - Jul 22 I'm Southampton born and bred but have been living in Apeldoorn, about 30 mins drive from Arnhem for the last 5 years. I'm lucky enough to have my tickets for the Vitesse, Saints game already. A friend bought them for us and I too will be sitting in with the Vitesse fans. I knew living over here and not being a Saints season ticket holder my chances of sitting with the Saints fans were pretty much zilch. The reason I'm posting is because this talk of crowd trouble is horrifying. Having lived here a good while now I would like to say that the Dutch people are among the most peaceful and football loving people of I've met. Not to mention the affinity and connection they feel towards our club given the obvious Dutch connections. I've had many a good football chat with Dutch guys who all speak so fondly of us. Please by all means get your tickets any way and for any seat you can but please be respectful. Let's hope we win and win well but do so with dignity that retains our well earned reputation here in Holland.

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saintmark1976 added 21:49 - Jul 22 Nick,whilst I appreciate that you are entitled to your opinion I truly cannot see any evidence to substantiate your views on this one. Even if Saints fans are mixed with the home supporters I would like to think that they and the Dutch will behave themselves.Until they do not then they are at least entitled to the benefit of the doubt in my opinion. Put simply,there is nothing to be gained here in trying to anticipate events is there?

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rjh added 22:27 - Jul 22 Very well said SaintinHolland.
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simmo400 added 06:15 - Jul 23 Nick your living in the 80's when you probably went around kicking anything that wasnt red n white.
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BarnetSaint added 07:21 - Jul 23 Hey Saint in Holland Are you going to Feynoord tonight? 4 of us driving over now from London ( via Bruges)
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thatchdht added 10:00 - Jul 23 I'm a saints fan now living in North Wales still not sure wether to go without ticket do you think they will let me in if I say I'm welsh
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SaintinHolland added 17:01 - Jul 23 Hey BarnetSaint, No, the tickets for the Feyenoord game were sold out on the first day and the only way to obtain some would have been for crazy money. Will be watching it on pay per view though and desperately hoping for the win and the subsequent bragging rights over my colleagues. Enjoy the game!
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