Saturday’s Dutch league match between relegation-threatened Groningen and NEC Nijmegen was abandoned after a cup of beer thrown from the crowd struck the assistant referee.
The referee, Richard Martens, took the players off the field in the 18th minute in line with new Dutch football guidelines, brought in earlier this month after crowd violence in the Dutch Cup semi-final between Feyenoord and Ajax Amsterdam.
A cigarette lighter thrown from the crowd hit Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen and cut his head, causing a lengthy delay to the match, and drawing widespread condemnation of behaviour at Dutch football matches from government ministers and other sectors of society.
The Dutch football association decided that matches should be stopped immediately if a player or match official is hit by an object from the crowd.