AFC Ajax and FC Groningen are rivals on the football pitch, but have found each other in their fight against municipal decisions on mandatory bus combinations. This is reported by Omroep Groningen. A bus combination is a transportation arrangement where football supporters are required to travel to an away game by organized buses. They may not travel to the stadium on their own. Notably, the method that both supporters' organizations are using is the Open Government Act (OGA). With OGA requests, they try to gain insight into the reasoning behind municipal decisions and, if necessary, take the case to court. The FC Groningen supporters started a Woo procedure at the Amsterdam municipality after the match against Ajax on November 30, 2025. They requested all correspondence related to the decision to implement a mandatory bus combination for the match. The search action yielded no documents. FC Groningen then asked the mayor, Femke Halsema, about the course of events. According to supporters' chairman John de Jonge, this initially yielded a 'non-committal answer' and later 'some fallacious arguments'. The Ajax supporters followed a similar path, but at the municipality of Groningen. They also submitted a Woo request regarding a mandatory bus combination imposed on them. When Groningen failed to respond in a timely manner, the supporters put the municipality in default. The case then went to court. Groningen initially argued that there was no longer any procedural interest, but later dropped this argument. The court ordered the municipality to pay a total of 864 euros in court costs. On the remarkable cooperation between two rival supporters' organizations, John de Jonge, chairman of the FC Groningen supporters' organization, says: 'We are 90 minutes of each other's greatest rivals, but as soon as the match is over, we as supporters have the same interest'.
Club
Supporters unite against municipal decisions
AFC Ajax and FC Groningen supporters unite against municipal decisions on mandatory bus combinations. They use the Open Government Act to gain insight into the reasoning behind these decisions.
