AJAX: THE FLYING DUTCHMEN
Ajax were founded in 1900 and after 2 years in the Amsterdam local league
they won promotion in successive years to secure 2nd Division status. In 1908
Ajax merged with 3rd division club "Holland" and 3 years later were promoted
to Division 1 under the guidance of a former Irish International John Kirwan.
After two narrow escapes Ajax were relegated in 1914 for the only time in their
existance. After winning promotion again in 1917 they went on the following
year to win the league for the first time. They repeated this success the following
year and remained unbeaten over the 30 League matches, a feat never repeated
by any Dutch Club. There was somewhat of a decline over the next decade for
but it was only to be a prelude to a successful 10 years in domestic football for
Ajax winning the League 5 times in that period. Such was public interest in Ajax
at this time that they decided to build a completely new stadium with a capacity
of 24,000. Today this stadium is still used but top games are usually played in
the 60,000 capacity Olympic Stadium.
The period of success was followed by a difficult one with the breakout
of World War 2 and struck the large Jewish community particularly hard and
Ajax had a particularly large Jewish support. Ajax had to try out many young
players during those dark years and they formed the skeleton squad of the team
who missed the championship in 1946 by one point but getting their own back
winning it the following year. Dutch football was revamped in 1954 with the
introduction of professionalism. 82 teams, Ajax among them started a new
professional league resulting in the formation of one national premier Division
in 1956. Ajax were the first winners in 1957 and acquainted them tor the first
time with the European Cup. After an easy victory over East German Champions
Wismulch they were beaten by Uasas of Hungary 6-2 on aggregate. Three years
later Ajax again appeared in the European Cup after winning a play-off 5-1
against Feyenoord after both teams had finished level on points.
If an exact date for the beginning of Holland's most hallowed period in j
football history were given it would be 7th December, 1966 when Ajax were paired
with Liverpool, many people's favourites for the European Cup, but Bill
Shankley's men were trouched 5-1 in Lense Foy in Amsterdam. Although Dukla
Prague beat Ajax in the next round they went on to clinch the league
championship for the second year in a row and completed the double for the
first time winning the cup as well. There was no stopping Ajax now and they
made it 3 titles in a row in 1968 and in 1969 made it to their first European
Final but their inexperienced showed and AC Milan beat them 4-1 in Madrid.
In 1970 Ajax again completed the double but again they finished runners-up
in a European Final when they were unable to peg back a 3-0 deficit against
Arsenal in the 1st leg of the Fairs Cup Final eventually losing 3-1 on aggregate.
It was 3rd lime lucky in 1971 when 30,000 Dutch fans travelled to Wembley to
see Ajax beat Greek Champions Panathinaikos 2-0 with goals from Van Dijk
and Haon. Ajax were Kings of Europe and had emulated the European Cup
triumph of their Arch rivals Feyenoord in 1970. 1972 was to be the greatest ever
season for Ajax. They again completed the League and Cup double and again
were in the final of the European Cup, this time against Inter Milan. This was
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