Premier division football club Ajax of Amsterdam is to embark on a major cost cutting programme in an effort to get its finances under control, financial director Jeroen Slop said on Friday.

Ajax made a loss of €9.9m in the first half of its current financial year, compared with net profit of €5.5m in the year-earlier period.
Players’ salaries are partly to blame for the deficit and future contracts will take this into account, Slop said on the club’s website. ‘It is really clear that we will have to pressure the costs enormously,’ he said.
Ajax, in 1998, became the first Dutch club to be floated on the stock exchange.
The club which relies heavily on money from transfers and the team’s wins in Europe, lost 2-1 to Juventus on Thursday in the Europa League.