Willem II captain Erik Schouten didn’t hold back after his side’s 1-1 Eredivisie draw with NEC Nijmegen.
The pair of Dutch sides faced off in a chaotic clash which saw a worrying first-half delay when teammates Dirk Proper and Koki Ogawa clashed heads and the former had to be taken to hospital.
There was unity between the sides as they created a shield around the player who is now reported to be OK.
Yet in the second half that comradery went missing, seemingly because of NEC coach Rogier Meijer.
Willem kicked a ball out of play when an injury occurred and according to their captain, opposition Meijer instructed NEC not to give it back.
Speaking post match Schouten said: “This coach is a very pathetic little guy.
“I hope he sleeps well tonight, we certainly won’t. Now the bad feeling is just dominating.
“How low you can sink as NEC, that you act so unsportsmanlike? It was a sporting match, if you look at what happened in the first half.
“But in my eyes you can’t do this. I think this trainer is a very pathetic guy. We just shoot the ball out and we assume that the ball will be returned. But they continue playing, which ultimately resulted in that free kick and the goal against.
“Later I understood that it came from the sidelines, from the trainer.
“In my eyes, very low, especially because the match was so sporting. But hey, it’s of no use to us. I hope he’s proud and we’re going home with a shitty feeling.”
Meijer has since responded, saying: “We don’t know each other personally, otherwise he wouldn’t say this about me. I don’t see myself as a sad guy, haha.
“I understand his emotion, I don’t have much trouble with that. I just can’t remember saying that we shouldn’t give the ball back.
“And we didn’t have to give them back. They had a player lie down on the ground several times. Also once with two players, so that according to the rules of the game no one had to leave the field. They even created a chance from that.
“I think it was allowed to continue playing football ourselves once. They still had time to sort things out afterwards, it’s not like we scored straight away.”
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