There’s been a lot of outrage this week over the Netherlands fans who showed up to their side’s game against Poland dressed up as Dutch legend Ruud Gullit. Unfortunately, these fans were accused of doing “blackface” in their attempts to look like their hero, and so people started calling them racists and all the rest of it.

Well, not only did Ruud Gullit himself tell De Telegraaf that he felt ‘quite honoured’ to see the fans dressed up as him, but now fellow Dutch star and Manchester City player Nathan Ake has weighed in and he thinks it’s pretty great too.

Asked about the situation ahead of his side’s showdown with France on Friday, Ake said:

‘I don’t see a problem.

‘Can I be honest here? These topics are getting out of hand, we should be allowing things like this to happen.

‘Ruud Gullit already said he finds it an honour too. Let’s stop making a problem out of things like this.’

So there you have it. A bunch of white Dutchmen painting their faces black and wearing wigs is simply a tribute to a great player and nothing more.

It’s almost as though the Netherlands isn’t the US or the UK and these crybaby racial dynamics don’t apply over there. But of course a lot of people see this sort of thing and immediately want to export their culture war issues to countries that are just trying to watch the Euros in peace and honour their legends with some fancy dress. It’s actually incredible that such a big deal was made out of this in the first place.

Obviously, racism is still an issue not just in football but in life in general, but I think it’s fair to say these three lads in the crowd are not part of the problem. Fair play to Nathan Ake for shutting this particular case down once and for all.

For the teens awarded $1 million after being accused of wearing blackface that turned out to be acne masks, click HERE. Whoops.