‘Be smart with your own youth’

Ajax no longer wants to be financially dependent on the millions in revenues in the Champions League. That is why the Amsterdam club is adjusting its business model.

Ajax wants to be able to make ends meet financially without qualifying for the highest European club tournament. Interim Managing Director Menno Geelen said this on Monday at the annual shareholders’ meeting.

Ajax wants to avoid having to make major cuts if the club does not achieve Champions League football, as has happened in the past two seasons. Ajax suffered a loss of almost 10 million euros for the 2023/24 season.

Qualification for the less lucrative Europa League, the second club tournament in Europe, should from now on be enough to avoid losing.

The ambition on the field to belong to the European top remains the same, Ajax’s policymakers reported. But with a financial policy based on Europa League football and not on Champions League football, the club is saying goodbye to the course chosen in 2018 under Marc Overmars, then technical director.

With Overmars as technical director and trainer Erik ten Hag as trainer, Ajax took more risks at the time. Big names with high salaries were bought and the income from Champions League football and the sale of players became essential.

That policy worked until Overmars had to leave and Ten Hag went to Manchester United and performances declined. The failed transfer policy of technical director Sven Mislintat added to that.

Ajax no longer wants to pursue such a policy. “We have to do better with less money,” said technical director Alex Kroes, Mislintat’s successor Het Parool. “So be smarter, especially with your own youth.”

No longer being financially dependent on the sale of players is part of the policy. “That means that we must strive for an operational result that is zero,” said financial director Susan Lenderink, who will leave the club on March 1.

Ajax employees can also feel the policy changes and cutbacks. Employees with an expiring contract will not receive a new offer, vacancies will not be filled and layoffs may follow. “It’s more than the cheese slicing method,” Geelen said during the meeting.