AFC Ajax
Sons of the Gods
Founded: 1900 Stadium: Johan Cruijff Arena (Amsterdam), Capacity: 54,990
Ajax have dominated in the Netherlands since the 1930s, but they have also a long stamped their marked on European competitions. As effective as they are spectacular. Ajax won the European Cup three seasons in a row, with a generation that composed the backbone of the Netherlands team that were runners-up in the 1974 and 1978 World Cups. They are renowned for their youth academy and their keen nose for recruiting players. Ajax has a unique club culture since 1917 and a system called “total football” developed by Jack Reynolds, Rinys Michels, Johan Cruijff and Louis van Gaal. It consists of discipline, physical fitness, technical craft and collective intelligence. This is handed down from one generation to the next. Although Ajax are the most popular club in the country they are also the most disliked by a great number of fans, especially by the supporters of Feyenoord, their eternal rivals, against whom they play the “Klassieker”. The club is named after the Greek hero Ajax. The Ajax logo has undergone several changes since the team’s inception in 1900. The earliest known logo of the club consisted of a simple image of a player in the Ajax strip. A new version was introduced in the September 1928 issue of Clubnieuws. It featured the mythical Greek hero – Ajax’s – head on the porcelain plate that was produced to commemorate Ajax AFC’s 25th anniversary in 1925.The logo remained unaltered for about 65 years. In 1990, a new Ajax logo was designed due to the mere fact that the emblem was not very easily exploited commercially. It also featured the original “Ajax head” but in a more abstract manner; consisting of eleven lines that represents the eleven players of the team.
