AFC Ajax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 01/2015
Full name:
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax
Nicknames:
de Godenzonen (Sons of the Gods)
de Joden (the Jews)
I Lancieri (The Lancers)
Lucky Ajax
Founded:
18 March 1900
Ground:
Amsterdam ArenA
Capacity:
52,342
Owner:
AFC Ajax NV (Euronext: AJAX)
Chairman:
Hennie Henrichs
Manager:
Frank de Boer
League:
Eredivisie
2013-14:
Eredivisie, 1st
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, also AFC Ajax or Ajax Amsterdam, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam.
Historically, Ajax (named after the legendary Greek hero) is the most successful club in the Netherlands, with 33 Eredivisie titles and 18 KNVB Cups.
Along with PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord, it is one of the country's "big three" clubs who have dominated Dutch football (and who are the only three clubs in the Netherlands that have never been relegated from the top division).
Ajax is historically one of the most successful clubs in the world; according to the IFFHS, Ajax were the seventh-most successful European club of the 20th century.
The club is one of the five teams that has earned the right to keep the European Cup and to wear a multiple-winner badge; they won consecutively in 1971-1973.
In 1972, they completed the continental treble by winning the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and the European Cup.
Ajax's last international trophies were the 1995 Intercontinental Cup and the 1995 Champions League, where they defeated Milan in the final; they lost the 1996 Champions League final on penalties to Juventus.
Ajax is also one of three teams to win the continental treble and the Intercontinental Cup in the same season/calendar year;
This was achieved in the 1971-72 season.
Ajax, Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea are the four clubs to have won all three major UEFA club competitions.
They have also won the Intercontinental Cup twice, the 1991-92 UEFA Cup, as well as the Karl Rappan Cup, a predecessor of the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1962.
Ajax plays at the Amsterdam Arena, which opened in 1996.
They previously played at De Meer Stadion and the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium (for international matches).
Johan Cruijff played at Ajax between 1959-73 and 1981-83, winning 3 European Cups; his No. 14 is the only squad number Ajax has ever retired.
Cruyff came back to manage the club from 1985-88.
HISTORY
Ajax was founded in Amsterdam on 18 March 1900.
The club achieved promotion to the highest level of Dutch football in 1911 and had its first major success in 1917, winning the KNVB Beker, the Netherlands' national cup.
The following season, Ajax became national champion for the first time.
The club defended its title in 1918-19, becoming the only team to achieve an unbeaten season in the Netherlands Football League Championship.
Throughout the 1920s, Ajax was a strong regional power, winning the Eerste Klasse West division in 1921, 1927 and 1928, but could not maintain its success at national level.
This changed in the 1930s, with the club winning five national championships (1931, 1932, 1934, 1937, 1939), making it the most successful Dutch team of the decade.
Ajax won its second KNVB Cup in 1942-43, and an eighth Dutch title in 1946-47, the last season the club was managed by Englishman Jack Reynolds, who, up to this point, had overseen all of its national championship successes as well as its 1917 KNVB Cup win.
In 1956, the first season of the Netherlands' new professional league, the Eredivisie, was played with Ajax participating as a founding member.
The Amsterdam club became the first national champions under the new format and made its debut in the European Champion Clubs' Cup the following year, losing to Hungarian champions Vasas SC 6:2 on aggregate at the quarter-final stage.
The team were again Eredivisie champions in 1960 and won a third KNVB Cup in 1961.
In 1965, Rinus Michels, who had played for the club between 1946 and 1958, was appointed manager of Ajax, implementing his philosophy of Total Football which was to become synonymous with both Ajax and the Netherlands national football team.
A year earlier, Johan Cruijff, who would go on to become the greatest Dutch footballer of all time, made his debut.
Between them, Michels and Cruijff led Ajax through the most successful period in its history, winning seven Eredivisie titles, four KNVB Cups and three European Cups.
Ajax won the Dutch championship in 1966, 1967, and 1968, and reached the 1969 European Cup Final, losing to A.C. Milan.
During the 1966-67 season, Ajax scored a record 122 goals in an Eredivisie season and also won the KNVB Cup to achieve its first league and cup double.
In 1969-70, Ajax won a fourth Dutch league championship and second league and cup double in five seasons, winning 27 out of 34 league games and scoring 100 goals.
The 1970-71 season saw Ajax retain the KNVB Cup and reach the 1971 European Cup Final, where they beat Panathinaikos 2:0 with goals from Dick van Dijk and Arie Haan to become continental champions for the first time, with Cruijff being named European Footballer of the Year.
After this success, Michels departed to become manager of FC Barcelona and was replaced by the Romanian Ștefan Kovács. In Kovács' first season, Ajax completed a treble of the European Cup, the Eredivisie and a third consecutive KNVB Cup.
The following season, the team beat Argentine club Independiente to win the 1972 Intercontinental Cup and retained their Eredivisie and European Cup titles, becoming the first club to win three consecutive European Cups since Real Madrid in the 1950s.
In 1973, Michels' Barcelona broke the world transfer record to bring Cruijff to Catalonia.
Kovács also departed to become manager of the France national football team signalling the end of this period of international success.
In 1976-77, Ajax won its first domestic championship in four seasons and recorded a double of the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup two years later.
The early 1980s saw the return of Johan Cruijff to the club, as well as the emergence of young players Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.
The team won back-to-back Eredivisie titles in 1982 and 1983, with all three playing a significant role in the latter.
After Cruijff's sale to rivals Feyenoord in 1983, Van Basten became Ajax's key player, top scoring in the Eredivisie for four seasons between 1983-84 and 1986-87.
In 1985, Cruijff returned to Ajax as manager and the team ended his first season in charge with 120 goals from 34 matches.
However, Ajax still finished as runner up to PSV by eight points.
The following season, Ajax again lost out on the Eredivisie title to PSV, but won the European Cup Winners' Cup, its first continental trophy in fourteen years.
After this, Cruijff left the club to become manager of Barcelona and Rijkaard and Van Basten were sold to Sporting CP and A.C. Milan respectively.
Despite these losses, Ajax reached a second consecutive Cup Winners' Cup final in 1988, where they lost to Belgian club KV Mechelen.
The 1988-89 season saw Dennis Bergkamp, a young forward who had first appeared under Cruijff in 1986, establish himself as a regular goalscorer for Ajax.
Bergkamp helped Ajax to the 1989-90 Eredivisie title and was the top scorer in the division in 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93.
Under the management of Louis van Gaal, Ajax won the UEFA Cup in 1992 to become the second club, after Juventus, to have won all three major European club competitions.
After the sale of Bergkamp to Internazionale in 1993, Van Gaal re-signed the experienced Frank Rijkaard to complement his young Ajax team featuring academy graduates Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edwin van der Sar, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Michael Reiziger, and Winston Bogarde, as well as mercurial foreign talents Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu and Jari Litmanen, and veteran captain Danny Blind.
The team regained the Dutch championship in 1993-94, and won it again in 1994-95 and 1995-96 to become the first Ajax side to win three back-to-back championships since 1968.
The height of Van Gaal's success came in 1994-95, where Ajax became the first, and to date only, team to complete an entire Eredivisie season unbeaten.
The team also won its first European Cup since its glorious 1970s era, beating Milan in the 1995 UEFA Champions League Final 1:0, with the winning goal scored by 18-year-old Patrick Kluivert. Ajax again reached the final a year later but were defeated on penalties by Juventus.
Ajax's return as a European force was short lived as Van Gaal and several members of the squad soon departed to some of the continent's biggest clubs.
The 2000s was a lean decade for the club with only two Eredivisie championships won.
However, Ajax's academy continued to produce star players such as Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart.
In 2010, Frank de Boer was appointed manager of Ajax and led the club to its first league title in seven years, and record 30th title overall, in the 2010-11 season.
This was followed by back-to-back wins in 2011-12 and 2012-13 to match his three consecutive titles as a player in the 1990s.
In 2013-14, Ajax were again Eredivisie champions, winning four consecutive league titles for the first time in the club's history.
YOUTH PROGRAM
Ajax Youth Academy and Ajax Hellas Youth Academy
The club is also particularly famous for its renowned youth program that has produced many Dutch talents over the years - Johan Cruijff, Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, national team top scorer Patrick Kluivert, and former national team coach Marco van Basten.
Dutch national first-team players Rafael van der Vaart, Ryan Babel, Wesley Sneijder, Maarten Stekelenburg, Eljero Elia, André Ooijer, John Heitinga and Nigel de Jong had also came through the ranks at Ajax and all are now playing for top-flight clubs.
Ajax also regularly supplies the Dutch national youth teams with local talent.
First team regulars Siem de Jong, Urby Emanuelson and Gregory van der Wiel are former youth internationals who made the successful step up to the senior side.
Due to mutual agreements with foreign clubs, the youth academy has also signed foreign players as teenagers before making first team debuts, such as Belgian defensive trio Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Thomas Vermaelen along with winger Tom de Mul, all of whom are full internationals as well as Dutch international Vurnon Anita as well as Javier Martina from Curaçao.
Ajax has also expanded its talent searching program to South Africa with Ajax Cape Town.
Ajax Cape Town was set up with the help of Rob Moore.
Ajax has also had a satellite club in the United States under the name Ajax America, until it filed for bankruptcy.
There are some youth players from Ajax Cape Town that have been drafted into the Eredivisie squad, such as South African internationals Steven Pienaar, Thulani Serero and Cameroonian international Eyong Enoh.
In 1995, the year Ajax won the Champions League, the Dutch national team was almost entirely composed of Ajax players, with Edwin van der Sar in goal; players such as Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer, and Danny Blind in defense; Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, and Clarence Seedorf in midfield; and Patrick Kluivert and Marc Overmars in attack.
In 2011 AFC Ajax opened its first youth academies outside of the Netherlands, when the club partnered up with George Kazianis and All Star Consultancy in Greece to open the Ajax Hellas Youth Academy.
The offices are based in Nea Smyrni, Attica, with the main training facility located on the island of Corfu, hosting a total of 15 football youth academies throughout Greece and Cyprus.
Eddie van Schaik heads the organization as coach and consultant, introducing the Ajax football philosophy at the various Greek football training camps.
STADIUMS
Ajax' first stadium was built in 1911 out of wood and was called "Het Houten Stadion" (The Wooden Stadium).
Ajax later played in the stadium built for the 1928 Summer Olympics hosted in Amsterdam.
This stadium, designed by Jan Wils, is known as the Olympic Stadium.
In 1934, Ajax moved to De Meer Stadion in east Amsterdam, designed by architect and Ajax-member Daan Roodenburgh, who had also designed the clubs first stadium.
It could accommodate 29,500 spectators and Ajax continued to play there until 1996.
For big European and national fixtures the club would often play at the Olympic Stadium, which could accommodate about twice the number of spectators.
In 1996, Ajax moved to a new home ground in the southeast of the city known as the Amsterdam ArenA.
This was built by the Amsterdam city authority at a cost of $134 million.
The stadium is capable of holding approximately 52,000 people.
The average attendance in 2006/07 was 48,610, rising in the next season to 49,128.
The ArenA has a retractable roof and set a trend for other modern stadiums built in Europe in the following years.
In the Netherlands, the ArenA has earned a reputation for a terrible grass pitch caused by the removable roof that, even when open, takes away too much sunlight and fresh air.
During the 2008-2009 season ground staff introduced an artificial lighting system that has finally reduced this problem considerably.
The much-loved De Meer stadium was torn down and the land was sold to the city council.
A residential neighbourhood now occupies the area.
The only thing left of the old stadium are the letters AJAX, nowadays in place on the façade of the youth training grounds De Toekomst, near the Amsterdam Arena.
CREST AND COLOURS
Crest
In 1900, when the club was founded, the emblem of Ajax was just a picture of an Ajax player.
The crest was slightly altered following the clubs promotion to the top division in 1911 to match the clubs new outfits.
In 1928, the club logo was introduced with the head of the Greek hero Ajax.
The logo was once again changed in 1990 into an abstract version of the previous one.
The new logo still sports the portrait of Ajax, but drawn with just 11 lines, symbolizing the 11 players of a football team.
COLORS
Ajax originally played in an all-black uniform with a red sash tied around the players' waists, but that uniform was soon replaced by a red/white striped shirt and black shorts. Red, black and white are the three colours of the flag of Amsterdam.
However, when, under manager Jack Kirwan, the club got promoted to the top flight of Dutch football for the first time in 1911 (then the Eerste Klasse or 'First Class', later named the Eredivisie), Ajax were forced to change their colours because Sparta Rotterdam already had exactly the same outfit.
Special kits for away fixtures did not exist at the time and according to football association regulations the newcomers had to change their colours if two teams in the same league had identical uniforms.
Ajax opted for white shorts and white shirt with a broad, vertical red stripe over chest and back, which still is Ajax's outfit.
FINANCIAL
AFC Ajax N.V.
AFC Ajax are the only Dutch club with an Initial public offering (IPO).
The club is registered as a Naamloze vennootschap (N.V.) listed on the stock exchange Euronext Amsterdam, since 17 May 1998.
With a launch price of ƒ25,- (Guilders) the club managed to a bring their total revenue up to €54 million euros (converted) in their first year on the market.
After short lived success however the rate dropped, at one point as low as €3,50.
Criticism was brought forth that the legal grid for a naamloze vennootschap would not be suitable for a Football club, and that the sports related ambitions would suffer from the new commercial interests of the now listed Ajax.
Shares of the company in the year 2008 were valued at approximately €5,90 per share.
In 2008 a Commission under guidance of honorary member Uri Coronel concluded, that the IPO was of no value to the club, and that measures should be taken to exit the stock exchange by purchasing back all public shares.
Ajax remain on the stock exchange.
SPONORSHIP
Ajax's shirts have been sponsored by TDK from 1982 to 1991, and by ABN AMRO from 1991 to 2008. AEGON then replaced ABN AMRO as the new head sponsor for a period of seven years.
On 1 April 2007, Ajax wore a different sponsor for the match against Heracles Almelo: Florius. Florius is a banking program launched by ABN AMRO who wanted it to be the shirt sponsor for one match.
The shirts have been manufactured by Le Coq Sportif (1973-1977), Puma (1977-1980), Le Coq Sportif (1980-1984), Kappa (1985-1989)[ and Umbro (1989-2000) in the past, and by Adidas since 2000 (until at least 2019).
In conclusion of the 2013-14 season, Ajax won the Football shirt of the Year award for their black and rose colored away shirt by adidas.
An annual award presented by Subside Sports which had previously been won by Internazionale, Juventus and the Belgium national team.
It was Ajax first time winning the award.
On 7 November 2014 it was announced that Ajax had agreed to 4,5 year contract worth €8 million annually with Dutch cable operating company Ziggo as the new shirt sponsor for the club.
Having extended their contract with AEGON for half a season until December, the club featured Fonds Gehandicaptensport, a charitable fund for handicapped sports on its away shirts for a six-month period before transitioning to Ziggo in 2015.
Players