The Ajax supervisory board nominates Danny Blind as a new member. The former footballer returns to the Amsterdam club at the request of Louis van Gaal. Van Gaal is currently an advisor to the supervisory board.
It will be decided at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM) yet to be organized whether Blind will actually join the supervisory board. If approved, he will be appointed until 2027. Blind was already a member of the supervisory board in the period from April 2018 to August 2021.
The 62-year-old Blind left earlier Ziggo Sports already know that he was open to a position within the supervisory board of Ajax. He acknowledged having contact with Van Gaal. “Our understanding in football is clear. It could be, but it is not there yet.”
Blind left the Ajax supervisory board in 2021 to assist Van Gaal at the Dutch team. In December last year he ruled out a return to the supervisory board. As a player and captain, Blind won many national and international prizes with Ajax. After his active career, he held several technical and managerial positions at the club.
Jan van Halst initially succeeded Blind as technical man in the supervisory board, but the former midfielder now fulfills the position of interim director until Alex Kroes can start. Kroes will become director in March, but Van Gaal is working on releasing him from AZ earlier.
Ajax brings back old acquaintances
Blind’s return fits in with the course that Ajax has recently taken to bring back veterans. Van Gaal has been appointed as advisor to the supervisory board, while former club chairman Michael van Praag and Leo van Wijk have been nominated as supervisory board members.
In addition, John van ‘t Schip will have a technical position at Ajax. The club also wanted to involve Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart in the first team, but an agreement with the former top midfielders was not reached.
Technical director Sven Mislintat was fired at the end of September after just four months. The German has brought twelve new players to Ajax, but so far they have not been able to impress. Van Gaal is eyeing Marijn Beuker as the new ‘td’. Beuker currently handles the technical matters at Queen’s Park in Scotland.
Partly due to the poor transfer policy, Ajax is seventeenth in the Eredivisie after seven matches. Coach Maurice Steijn’s team lost on Sunday 4-3 from FC Utrecht. It was the eighth time in a row that Ajax did not win in all competitions, which was a shame negative club record yielded.
The post first appeared on www.nu.nl