Ajax Amsterdam’s ladies’s staff is not going to be honoured with a public celebration within the Dutch capital on Monday regardless of claiming the Eredivisie title, as membership officers concern the poor efficiency of the males’s staff this season will solicit a lukewarm response.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema had invited the triumphant ladies’s staff for a customary balcony ceremony within the metropolis’s well-known Leidseplein sq., however Ajax declined the provide, resulting in a big backlash.
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The Ajax ladies’s staff secured their third league title virtually three weeks in the past, and membership officers imagine the second to mark the achievement has handed.
“We do not support the timing or the place,” a membership spokesperson instructed the Dutch web site NU.nl.
Ajax are involved any public celebrations can be muted given the poor efficiency of the boys’s facet, “which would not be good for the image of women’s football.”
The boys’s staff are third within the league with one fixture to play this season, and look more likely to miss out on a Champions League place for the primary time since 2009.
“The lack of a celebratory mood around Ajax in general, which is linked to the performance of the men’s team this season, played a part in the decision,” the Ajax spokesman continued.
Officers in Amsterdam’s municipality will not be pleased with the stance.
“Unfortunately, without the cooperation of the club, the mayor and the alderman see no possibility to organise a successful ceremony this season,” metropolis officers mentioned in an announcement.
It has divided opinion within the Dutch capital, with one Ajax fanclub voicing robust opposition to the concept of honouring the ladies’s staff, although for a unique purpose.
“In our opinion, a public tribute in Amsterdam should only be reserved for Ajax 1 [the men’s team],” supporter’s membership AFCASC mentioned in an announcement.
However the resolution to cancel the ceremony obtained criticism too.
“With friends like that, you don’t need enemies. Very disappointed in what should feel like ‘my’ club,” former Ajax defender Merel Van Dongen mentioned.