0
THE COMPANY - ORGANISATION AND ACTIVITIES
By winning the National league 27 times, winning the European Cup 4 times, and winning
both the European Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup once, Ajax is the most successful
Football Club in the Netherlands and one of the most successful Football Clubs in Europe.
The activities of Ajax can be divided into football and football-related activities.
The football activities comprise professional and amateur football, the youth training
programme, the scouting system, player and transfer management and supporter
management. The football-related activities comprise generating income from sponsoring
and advertising, exploiting media rights, merchandising of name, shirt and logo and
exploiting players' portrait rights.
Ajax's structure is shown in the following diagram.
100%
FMP Z-0 B.V.
Ajax
Merchandising)
Tekmessa B.V.
Ajax Images)
Exekias B.V.
Ajax Museum)
Eurysakes B.V.
Ajax Direct)
Football activities
Sponsoring and advertising
Media
Ajax
Between Ajax and its four group companies currently exists a subholding, called Teucrus B. V.
The football activities, sponsoring and advertising and media activities have been placed
directly under Ajax. Ajax Merchandising includes those merchandising activities where its
customers are not the end-users. This could mean the granting of licences to produce and
sell Ajax products and the purchasing and production of Ajax articles. Ajax Direct carries
out the merchandising activities whereby the end-user is directly supplied. The main areas
are Mail Ordering, sales via the Internet and the establishment and exploitation of own
franchising shops. Ajax Images takes care of the personal advertising activities of the
players. Minority interests are not included in the above structure.
Strategy
The strategy of Ajax with regard to football is aimed at guaranteeing that the Amsterdam-
based organisation (Ajax Amsterdam) is nearly always placed in the top level of the
Netherlands, as well as in the European top level. In order to realise this, Ajax is striving
for a combination of young talent with internationally experienced players. A continuous
flow of own-trained players must minimise Ajax's need to buy players from other clubs.
In this context, Ajax's aim is to expand and further internationalise its scouting system
(see 'Football - Scouting'). It also plans to establish several training centres at different
locations around the world. This creates the opportunity to find and train the best talents
in the world at an early stage. In the end, the goal will always be to continue the flow of
young players to the first team of Ajax Amsterdam.
Furthermore, Ajax aims to play a leading role in the ongoing commercialisation and
globalisation of football, both by playing high-quality football and by exploiting the
related activities like sponsoring, merchandising and exploitation of television rights to
the maximum. The management believes that exploiting these activities cannot be a goal
in its own right, but should always support the football activities.
With regard to sponsoring, the Company's aim is to strengthen its relations with its
sponsors in order to try to gain the maximum benefit from exploiting the name, the brand,
and the Ajax logo for both the sponsor and the Company.
