Ajax Amsterdam’s girls’s staff won’t 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 lads’s staff this season will solicit a lukewarm response.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema had invited the triumphant girls’s staff for a customary balcony ceremony within the metropolis’s well-known Leidseplein sq., however Ajax declined the supply, resulting in a big backlash.
The Ajax girls’s staff secured its third league title nearly 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 advised the Dutch web site NU.nl.
Ajax is worried any public celebrations can be muted given the poor efficiency of the lads’s facet, “which would not be good for the image of women’s football”.
The males’s staff is third within the league with one fixture to play this season, and appears 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.
Officials in Amsterdam’s municipality aren’t proud of 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 thought of honouring the ladies’s staff, although for a special cause.
“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.
But the choice 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.
