Old Promises, Little Progress
One of the report's central points is that none of this is groundbreaking. The team notes that agreements on tackling fireworks, along with a detailed action plan, were already put together back in 2018. Yet looking at where things stand now, the panel admits that very little of that plan actually got carried out.

Good intentions alone weren't enough, they say, and the various parties involved simply didn't push each other hard enough to follow through. The cultural change many had hoped to see among fans never really took hold either.

Identifying troublemakers remains another sticking point.

The report singles out face coverings, balaclavas included, along with large cloths and banners, as major obstacles that make it far too easy for offenders to stay anonymous and avoid consequences.

Why the Report Landed Now
Interestingly, this report was finished back in July. Criminologist Henk Ferwerda explained that its release was delayed because of the political summer break in The Hague.

But the timing shifted after violence broke out involving fireworks during the SC Cambuur–Feyenoord match on Sunday, an incident that left seven people hurt. Ferwerda described the scenes from that match as genuinely alarming, adding that it captured exactly the kind of problem the investigation had set out to examine.

The audit team itself is made up of a mix.