Not Only In The Indonesian League, Playing With 12 Players Also Occurs In The Eredivisie

The Heerenveen vs Fortuna Sittard match was marked by an incident playing 12 people (doc. SC Heerenveen).

JAKARTA - Heerenveen's manager, Robin van Persie, was irritated after match officials mistakenly allowed Fortuna Sittard to field 12 players on Sunday's match, February 2, 2025.

The incident occurred in the 88th minute when Heerenveen was 2-1 up. Fortuna made a double change which made Ryan Fosso and Total Dahlhaus replaced by Darijo Grujcic and Owen Johnson.

However, Dahlhaus did not leave the field and played for almost a minute.

Van Persie realized the advantages of Fortuna's number of players and protested on the sidelines before Dahlhaus was finally pulled out.

A minute later, Fortuna equalized through a corner to thwart three Heerenveen points.

"I felt what happened before the goal was very special. Fortuna Sittard played with 12 players on the pitch for a minute before the throw-in."

"The catch is allowed and maybe you can't imagine that? That's just allowed."

"Usually I never talk to referees and always let them do their job."

"However, it is impossible for them to play with 12 players. It didn't think of it. So, I asked the fourth referee, should you do something about it?" Van Persie said after the game.

So far, Van Persie has no sign of wanting to file an official protest to the Eredivist operator and the discipline department of the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB).

"For example, overturning that goal. You can't play with 12 players against 11 players. I really can't understand that. I think this is really embarrassing," said Van Persie.

The former Manchester United and Arsenal striker took over Heerenveen in May 2024.

The team, which was defended by players from the Indonesian National Team, Thom Haye and Nathan Tjoe-A-On, is now 10th in the Eredivision 2024/2025 standings after 21 matches.

Meanwhile, this incident has actually happened in Liga 1 2024/2025. At that time, PSM Makassar played 12 people against Barito Putera on December 22, 2024.

For this incident, PSM was sentenced by the PSSI Disciplinary Commission after Barito Putera filed an official protest. However, the sanction was lifted after Juku Eja's appeal was granted. PSM still got three points because the match ended with a score of 3-2.