Falling into disgrace is easier than being accepted into grace again. They now notice that at Ajax, where they still watch the storm like a chicken that accidentally ended up lonely on a football field. What now?
Ajax’s press secretary Miel Brinkhuis made an attempt to reach out, which painfully failed. He told the staff that he regretted that (former) employees had come out without permission from the media department. He praised the women who had not been tempted to do so. So if the next Ajax director also sends horny apps to the female staff, just call Miel Brinkhuis right away: „Would you like to inquire with the director why he sends such strange apps to me? Let me know! Good day!”
It is striking how clumsy Ajax always operates when it is discredited. The management hides behind vague statements or has the dirty work done by a lower official who bears no responsibility. For example, Ajax made a four-year mess of the sports accident with Abdelhak Nouri, reacted hesitantly after violent incidents with some players, made a trip to the human rights violators of Qatar, and silently violated the quarantine rules.
The Paroolwhere they certainly don’t hate Ajax, summed it up aptly in the headline: “Moral compass suffers from masculine corporate culture.”
Why is that compass so badly adjusted? At the initiative of Johan Cruijff, Ajax took on a number of ex-top players; eventually only Marc Overmars and Edwin van der Sar remained. It was a good idea from Cruijff, but it also had limitations.
Such people have been immersed in the small world of football from childhood and have too little knowledge of the surrounding society to be a capable leader of such a large company as Ajax. They can ensure a sporting success – and they did – but they pay too little attention to the social consequences of this. See Overmars, who also seemed to act out of a certain hubris with his apps; who could make him what?
Nor do they seem to realize that the club’s capital is made up of young, often unbalanced people, great talents on the field, but searching and blundering off it, also because the big money descends on them like manna. Two recent examples come from the United Kingdom. 20-year-old Manchester United attacker Mason Greenwood has been charged with assault, rape and threatening to kill his girlfriend.
West Ham United football club has fined 27-year-old player Kurt Zouma €300,000 for kicking one of his cats in his villa. What caught my eye, and didn’t surprise me, was the mention that Zouma had been banned for ten weeks in 2013 for causing a double leg fracture to an opponent with a tackle.
They are young, wealthy, live in villas, drive priceless cars, but civilization in the form of a moral compass has not grown with it. The clubs should guide them more vigilantly. Sure, most football players are good, but the bad guys define the image more than is good for the sport.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of February 14, 2022