So why play at all? Ajax wasn't happy, understandable, they wanted to play in the Champions League and were stuck in Norway instead, but what about the Norwegians? If you can't even get your fans to come to your international matches, why bother?
So let's consider the match as a practice for young, new and upcoming referees, like the Pole Grzegorz Gilewski. Then again: nothing happened, we have to see him again to be able to rate this referee. I'm sure Gilewski also rather had been officiating a Champions League match.