De Guzman vs De Guzman

Tuesday 07 October 2008

Feyenoord's pairing in the UEFA Cup with Deportivo de La Coruna means Feyenoord midfielder Jonathan De Guzman will play his brother Julian, who plays for the Spanish outfit.

"I didn't watch the draw on TV, but a little after Julian sent me a text message that we will play each other," De Guzman said.

"I hope Julian and I will both be fit, because it could be the first time we play each other at the highest level."

There was less excitement in Rotterdam about Feyenoord's first opponent; AS Nancy.

Not so much because of the team of coach Pablo Correa is all that worrisome, but the last time the two teams met in Nancy unorganized Feyenoord fans managed to get into the stadium and ran riot.

As a consequence Feyenoord were evicted from the tournament

The fact that the two teams will now meet again - in Nancy - was greeted with concerns on both ends.

"We have bad memories of that game, two years ago. I hope that since then the supporters have calmed down a bit, because supporters of that kind are a plague," Nancy chairman Jacques Rousselot told French newspaper L’ Est Républicain.

Eric van Dorp, chairman of Feyenoord's organized fans was there that black night: "Another one of these nights will be the death of this club."

An extra problem is that Feyenoord fans have built such a bad name for themselves in Europe that hooligans all over the continent wait for an encounter.

Last week in Sweden there were clashes with Feyenoord fans and supporters of Swedish club Helsingborg, even though Feyenoord were playing Kalmar FF that night.

Feyenoord fans fear the same might happen in France later this month.

The French authorities still haven't banned the free selling of tickets, which was one of the reasons unorganized fans had access to the stadium two years ago.

Feyenoord Director Eric Gudde admits he's worried.

"This game of course is stained, but we have to live with that as a club. We don't have much time as this is the first group game, but we shall do everything to prevent anything going wrong. If anything does go wrong it will have serious consequences for the club. We hope the fans will think about that."