FROM THE "CAFE EAST INDIA"
TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD
By Derek Hodgson (Daily Express)
While Accrington has been all but forgotten since
the death of its Stanley the great city of Amsterdam
would no doubt continue to flourish in riches and
legend without its Ajax.
Yet in the last decade there is no doubt that the
scarlet and white ribbons of Ajax have helped spread
the fame of a great city, and of Dutch football,
throughout the world.
Ajax's origins are almost as humble as those of
a club once known as Newton Heath. A few lads
kicked a football around in a village outside Amsterdam
in 1893.
Four years later the Dutch F.A. was founded and
in 1900, on March 18th, a meeting was convened in
a stuffy upstairs room of the Cafe East India on
Amsterdam's smart Karvelstraat.
Those Edwardians, in their top hats and full
beards, were determined that this club, unlike soma
of its early rivals, would be organised on a proper
business footing.
So Ajax Amsterdam was proposed and founded
and joined the Third Division of the new League.
Eight years later it merged with another strong
Third Division club, Holland and by 1911 had reached
the First Division for the first time.
In 1918/19 they became the first Dutch club to
win the championship in successive seasons. Through
the 1920's they had an English coach, Jack Reynolds,
and he is credited with building an Ajax team that
won the League five times in the next decade.
In December 1934 the club opened their new
stadium where they still play their home games
European matches are played in the 65,000 capacity
Olympic Stadium.
But the war years were sad ones for Holland and
Ajax, the club suffering particularly because of their
many Jewish members and they can thank their
own basic organisation for recovering significantly
well to win the title again in 1947.
Not until the 1950's did the Dutch League begin
to turn professional the move that led Ajax, interrupted
occasionally by their deadly rivals Feyenoord of
Rotterdam, to become a world power 10 years later.
Briefly, in the last 16 years, Ajax have won the
world club championship once, the European Cup
three times, been Dutch champions seven times and
won the Dutch Cup five times.
English fans noticed the name for the first time in
the 1966/67 season when Ajax were expected to be a
pushover for Bill Shankly's mighty Liverpool.
The result from Amsterdam that night electrified
EuropeAjax 5, Liverpool 1
Mr. Shankly growled about the fog and predicted
his team would score six at Anfield. But Ajax attacked,
were twice in the lead and ended deserved winners
with a 2-2 draw.
The following season Real Madrid beat them, in
the second half of extra time, in a match that is still
remembered as a classic in Madrid and for the fact
that the deadly Cruyff, unmarked and only a few
yards out, pushed the ball into the 'keeper's hands I
In May 1969 they reached their first European Final
to fail 4-1 to A.C. Milan in Madrid.
Much to the surprise of Ajaxand Europe
Feyenoord became the first Dutch European Cup-
winners in 1970 but 1971, in London, saw Ajax win
the first of three successive crowns of Europe.
Inevitably such prestige attracted the attention of
rich foreign clubs and both Cruyff and Neeskens
joined Barcelona.
So at the start of last season Ajax announced
a new rebuilding plan. At one stage they led the
League by five points but couldn't dominate away
games with their old elan and eventually finished
third.
It was enough to give them a U.E.F.A. Cup place
and a star-spangled draw against Manchester
United. Old Trafford can be sure that Ajax will no
be content to sit on their 1-0 lead from the first leg.
They will have assessed and measured United
from Amsterdam and this second leg of a first round
tie may produce more attacking football from the
opposition than United will see again all season.
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