The home team Hammarby were leading 2–0 when the match was interrupted at Tele 2 arena in Stockholm after pyrotechnics were thrown in from the away team Djurgården's supporters. At least one person had been burned.
After a match meeting, the police decided to revoke the permit for a public event, which meant that the match would continue without an audience. There was a break of around two hours before the announcement came that the match would be completed first on Monday, at 2 pm.
"Djurgården decides"
When the organizer (Hammarby, ed.) could not take any measures, such as emptying the Djurgården stand, searching people to remove all types of explosive goods and such things, then we don't do it and then we are forced to interrupt completely, says Per Engström, section chief at the National Operational Department (Noa) at the police, to TT.
Hammarby's Kim Hellberg says that he understands that the police first and foremost need to think about safety. But he is critical of the consequences that follow the decision.
That Djurgården and those who decide in Swedish football think it's a good idea that we should lose our home advantage, that our fans should have to leave here and that we should play the rest of the match tomorrow... It's a very dangerous path to take, he says in an interview with Max.
"Life and health"
Hellberg means that it was already known before the kick-off that Djurgården's fans would disturb the order in the event of a disadvantage in the derby.
It's obvious that (the fans of) one team have decided to do something, he says.
Hammarby's security manager Göran Rickmer says to Aftonbladet that the police have made a populist decision "to show themselves on the straight line".
My assessment is that we should play the match to the end. A discussion became after the meeting about how the arena would be emptied. When the police revoke the permit, then there is no organizer and then we have no one working at the arena. I think it's the police who should empty the arena, but the police thought it was our responsibility, he says to the newspaper.
Per Engström at Noa does not share Göran Rickmer's view.
He needs to think about what he did well today, he says and adds:
We make no populist decisions, but we look at life and health.
