Rows, backstabbing, intrigue, death threats…it’s business as usual at Ajax football club.

What’s it all about?
Football club Ajax of Amsterdam staged a real coup in February 2010: it invited its distinguished member of honour and idol of thousands Johan Cruijff to take part in a technical think tank meant to come up with new ideas to perk up the prospects of the club and reform its youth programme. Cruijff had been fiercely critical of club policy and rather than have him shout from the sidelines, the board wanted him safely between the four soundproof walls of the board room. Once ensconced at the club, Cruijff proceeded to set in motion a ‘velvet revolution’ to sort things out. Only it wasn’t so velvet.
What happened?
Cruijff and his fellow think tank members Frank de Boer and Dennis Bergkamp came up with a plan which included the hiring and firing at the club. Technical director Danny Blind, for one, would have to go, in fact the whole job had to go. It all became too much for board member Uri Coronel: ‘high handed’ and ‘dictatorial’ were some of the kinder epithets he gave the manner in which Cruijff tried to make the board see things his way. Cruijff, furious at the resistance put up by the board, demanded it step down which it did, followed shortly afterwards by general director Rik van den Boog.
Where did that leave the club?
Without a general manager for one thing, and a lot of resentment. Cruijff meanwhile had accepted a seat on the advisory board, together with Edgar Davids, Paul Römer, Marjan Olfers and chairman Steven ten Have. The search was on for a new general director. Who was it going to be? Guus Hiddink said no, Marco van Basten was mentioned but ruled out by Cruijff, according to Ten Have. Tscheu La Ling, also a former Ajax player, was Cruijff’s director of choice but he was rejected by the other members. Finally, without notifying Cruijff, former international Edgar Davids rang fired Bayern coach Louis van Gaal and asked him to do the job. Van Gaal said yes. Cruijff and Van Gaal don’t like each other. An exasperated Cruijff slated his fellow board members and chairman Ten Have for going behind his back. Then things got ugly.
Was Davids manipulated?
Davids was filmed coming out of a board meeting where he ‘spontaneously’, ie after NOS tv made him repeat the interview five times, recalled a heated exchange with Cruijff in June in which Cruijff allegedly said: ‘You are only on this board because you are black.’ Suddenly Cruijff was a racist. Chairman Ten Have then stoked up the fire by telling NOS Sport that ‘what Davids said is true’. Cruijff explained that he had been referring to the fact that Davids was on the board to promote and encourage black players. And besides he said ‘I like plain speaking’, ‘Baldy, Red, Cross eyed, what does it matter? That is how we talk in football. The main thing is we get on.’ Davids has since said he never regarded Cruijff as a racist. ‘Problem sorted’, Cruijff reacted. Many think the Davids incident was part of a campaign to damage Cruijff. Marjan Olfers meanwhile has received death threats and so have some of the other members of the advisory board.
What will happen now?
The latest news is that Cruijff has said he doesn’t think he will be able to work with Van Gaal. But you never know with Cruijff. As he said himself: ‘Something’s got to happen before something happens.’