quaint

final

A Cup final in two legs because the match was planned to be in Rotterdam, and the two teams that reached the final were the very home team Feyenoord and their rivals Ajax. The two teams can't take their fans to a match against the other, for fear of riots ending in slaughter, so the Dutch FA compromised and changed the format. Two matches with only the home crowd.

match

Ajax won the first leg against a powerless Feyenoord (2-0), but then the second leg was going to be something else. There were plans of discriminatory chants against Ajax and the ref, just to disrupt the match, all kinds of stuff, the police were ready, journalists roamed the Net to read all the fanzines and forums, pages upon pages in newspapers had been filled: the match of the century no less. And a fierce Feyenoord was going to win.
Well after about seven minutes Ajax' Suares scored with a long shot and from then on the stadium went quiet. When Ajax scored their 4th goal a lot of people had already left.

cup

Ajax was presented the Cup in an empty stadium, even the losing team had gone home. A very uncool thing to do.

ball girl

For marketing reasons one of the Cup sponsors, Amstel Beer, had the great idea to use blonde grown up girls for ball boys. One of them, apparently a law student, entered the field running after a second ball while Ajax was on their way scoring another goal. Luinge saw it but didn't stop the game because of Ajax' advantage. Unorthodox, but a good decision. Of course there were protests after the match, but who cares. This was not a match, this was a joke.

Luinge

Luinge had himself substituted some three minutes before the end. A plan he had hatched with his fourth man Kevin Blom. This too showed the match wasn't really a serious one. But I like Luinge's style, a big guy, severe but with humour; another Dutch referee who had his clashes with the referee panel and the Dutch FA, but he survived.