Officiating chief admits Van Bommel should've been sent off for Bouwman charge

In the 81st minute of Saturday's game, Van Bommel lunged into Aaron Bouwman's chest and head without making an effort to head the ball. Bouwman went down hard and stayed down in agony, while Ajax and PSV got engaged in a massive scuffle that resulted in four yellow cards.

Van Bommel got away with a yellow card without any VAR intervention, a decision that drew heavy backlash to the KNVB, referee Sander van der Eijk, and VAR official Pol van Boekel.

On Sunday, KNVB officiating chief Raymond van Meenen admitted that Van Bommel should've been sent off for his reckless challenge, which van der Eijk called "unlucky".

"It’s not that complicated. Van Bommel goes into this aerial challenge with such force and speed that he poses a threat to his opponent’s safety. That warrants a red card. And it has nothing to do with an elbow or anything like that. In this case, his body is the ‘weapon’," Van Meenen told AD.

Bouwman was taken off for Thilo Kehrer and was taken to hospital after the game. PSV manager Peter Bosz said that Van Bommel visited Bouwman in the dressing room, but defended Van der Eijk's decision to leave it at a yellow card.

"I’ve just come back from seeing Ruben. He’s really upset in the changing room. He was the only one who didn’t join in the celebrations in the changing room, because that was definitely not his intention. And yes, when you see that boy leaving the pitch like that, it’s not a pretty sight," Bosz said after the game.

“You can see that he reckons that when the ball bounces, he’ll be able to head it away. It’s only once he’s in the air that he realises Bouwman is close by, and he turns away to avoid a head-to-head collision. That’s when the impact is huge."

Ajax captain Davy Klaassen ran onto the pitch after being subbed off to mane his teammates to calm down and spoke to the referee about the collision, which he had a clear idea about: "To me, this is nothing but a red card, but maybe I’m crazy.

"I saw Van Bommel go in hard on Aaron. I ran onto the pitch to keep everyone calm. When I saw him lying there, I asked the referee: ‘What are we going to do? What’s this?’ But he called it an unfortunate incident. We’ll just have to accept that. He’s the referee."