Kroes face to face with commissioners at Ajax meeting: ‘Can tell my story’

• Guido van Gorp

  investigative journalist NOS Sport

• Sam Porskamp

  follows Ajax on behalf of NOS Sport

Members and administrative leaders of Ajax will gather tonight at Sportpark De Toekomst in Amsterdam for a crisis meeting focusing on the suspension of general manager Alex Kroes. It was already known that the board of directors and the supervisory board would be present, but Kroes himself also plans to come, he confirmed to NOS.

“I am also a member,” Kroes points out about his long-standing relationship with Ajax. He has been playing football at the club since his youth and is still active as a midfielder for the amateur branch of the Amsterdam team.

Surrounded by his teammates from Ajax Saturday 5, with whom he was on the field last weekend, and many other members, he will listen to the explanation of the supervisory board to suspend him for possible insider trading. There is a good chance that Kroes will respond. “I can tell my story, where necessary within the degree of confidentiality,” he says via WhatsApp.

He does not want to delve deeper into the matter for the time being. He leaves it at his previously published statement on LinkedIn. “I consciously stay out of the media.” The chairman of the board of directors, Ernst Boekhorst, had words to the same effect, “but that could possibly be different tomorrow evening”. Leo van Wijk of the supervisory board also thinks he will know more tomorrow.

The calm before the storm, it seems.

The information meeting, as it is formally called, takes place at the initiative of the Ajax board of directors, the representatives of the association. The members of Ajax are demanding clarification from the supervisory board (SB) about the situation surrounding Kroes, who was suspended due to possible insider trading.

“The evening will focus on developments surrounding Alex Kroes and other relevant matters,” says the invitation, which is in the hands of NOS.

What was the situation with Ajax’s board of directors again? We explain this in the article below.

There has been a lot of activity behind the scenes in recent weeks. After Kroes’ suspension, the board of directors, which has the power to dissolve the supervisory board, sought legal advice from the law firm Clifford&Chance.

In a letter that was leaked earlier this month, they made no mistake about it. According to them, it is crystal clear: the supervisory board, led by Michael van Praag, sidetracked Kroes too quickly and must seriously consider a return “in any form and under any conditions”.

This view is at odds with that of chairman Van Praag. In recent weeks he reiterated once again that a return of Kroes, in any position, is non-negotiable and affects Ajax’s credibility. As far as Van Praag is concerned, the Kroes book is definitively closed.

“The legal advice was very firm. It is difficult to explain if you remove him from the board and then offer him another position,” Van Praag spoke clearly.

Within the supervisory board, people are certainly not happy with the slap on the wrist from the association. According to an insider, the board of directors, by asking them to reconsider Kroes’ departure, has opened Pandora’s box.

Van Praag sees no other option than dismissing Kroes: ‘Unable to explain otherwise’

All more than seven hundred members are invited tonight, but on average an average of just over a hundred people attend such meetings. Members who wanted to attend could register until Monday, with the criterion “full is full” applying.

Some insiders expect fireworks at tonight’s “information meeting”. Especially because various parties (Kroes, the board, members, fans) are critical of the supervisory board’s actions in this matter. Earlier, 131 members of Ajax vented about the proposed dismissal of the general manager. According to them, supervisory board chairman Van Praag “committed premeditated character assassination” of Kroes.

“We would like to kindly but urgently request you, as the competent body of the association, to hold Michael van Praag accountable,” the more than one hundred members wrote in a letter. “We believe that the honorary chairman (Van Praag, ed.) should publicly apologize to Alex, especially because Alex is one of us. He is part of our family.”