Poland summons ambassador over Dutch police ‘discrimination’
The Polish foreign ministry has summoned the Dutch ambassador to a meeting on Saturday over "discriminatory actions" of Dutch police against Polish footballers.
The Dutch police have confirmed to PAP that two people were arrested in connection with a disturbance in the northern city of Alkmaar following a football match between the local club and Legia Warsaw on Thursday evening.
Other Polish players complained about police brutality.
"In connection with credible and disturbing information about discriminatory actions of Dutch services against citizens of the Republic of Poland, including in the city of Alkmaar, the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a Saturday meeting," Paweł Jabłoński, Poland's deputy foreign minister, wrote on X on Friday.
"We have arrested two people for assault," a Dutch police spokesman told PAP. "This concerns a 28-year-old man from Serbia and a 33-year-old man from Portugal."
The Dutch police said in a statement that Polish football fans stormed the stadium’s gate before the match started and behaved aggressively, as quoted by the Polish private radio RMF FM.
On Friday evening, Bartosz Zaslawski, Legia Warszawa spokesperson, confirmed that the two arrested footballers, Josue and Radovan Pankov, had been released and were on their way to Warsaw.
The Polish club was in the city to play a Europe Conference League match against AZ Alkmaar.
