Liverpool played Ajax a few weeks back and were almost outclassed. A week kater they smashed another side 13-0.

I thought of doing research and here is a thread on

"Ajax of Amsterdam and how they operate as a selling club"

Ajax was founded in March 1900, exactly 120 years ago. They are amongst the most successful clubs in the world when it comes to trophies and definitely the most successful in Netherlands, having won 34 league titles, 19 cups, 4 Champions League and 2 Super Cups. (1/2)

Including a 3 peat of the CL in 1970s.

Their trophy room is a thing of beauty. Clicked this one last year. Notice the jersey number 14 of Cruyff being centrally placed.(2/2)

The club is a staunch believer in not only the attacking football philosophy, but also the fact that Football is a game for the fans, by the fans, of the fans! Their ticket prices are always under 20 euros for normal seats and the stadium records an average attendance of 52k

Based on the famous quote of the man himself. The club believes in keeping the money aspect limited.

Their highest paid players last season were Ziyech and VDB, both at 80kpw (euros). To put it in context, that's lesser than Brandon Williams' wages.

Coming to financials, the club's revenues peaked in 2018-19, thanks to their best ever European season this century. Their revenues more than doubled last year, to 199.5m euros.This is still lower than West Ham United and Everton and just above half of Dortmund(1/2)

Their revenue the year before was a measly 93m euros. Huddersfield Town made 120m just from TV revenues that year. Before 2018-19, they had never breached the 120m euro mark.(2/2)

Of the 199m, 78m was from CL revenue, which was 1m the year before. The other big part was transfer money, which saw a bump to 100m from 34m the year before, thanks to FDJ sale to Barca. TV revenue from domestic league and cup was 10m Euro and gate receipts were even lesser.

Which tells us there is a lot they need to do to just barely "survive"

The year 2019-20, they are expected to get around 45m euros for CL revenue, around 5m euros from domestic TV revenues. These losses would bring the club down again to sub 150m levels.

So the main sustainable source of revenue only through player sales. Also, players would want to move on in the hope of making more money (veiled in the name of better competition).
This makes the academy and scouting team, arguably the most important parts of the organisation.

This iconic football club, in its endeavour to keep the game about the fans and not about money, will remain the club that unearths gems and polishes them; then sells those to worthy buyers for sustenance.

Most commendable part of Ajax is the football club is run by footballing people and the first team players are not treated like gods. Often you can see first team players having a game with academy youngsters.Neres,VDB and Blind are seen playing with 14 year olds before practice

While the world of football today is a shiny doll for capitalists from across the world, Ajax remains a club far away from it, interacting with these big clubs only on a need basis and keeping the old ethos of the game, a game of people; alive!

End Of Thread !