Ajax’s Wim Jansen(left) tussles with Ricardo Villa of Tottenham in the 1981/82 European Cup Winners’Cup first round

Spurs  host Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League semi final encounter at their brand new  Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. This will be the second official game after their last one way back in the eighties.

Founded on March 18, 1900 AFC Ajax is one of the most storied clubs in European football. After their founding and acceptance into Dutch Football , Ajax spent ten seasons in the country’s second division before earning promotion for the 1911 season.

Ajax’ first taste of European competition came in 1961 when the club became the first from the Netherlands to participate in the European Cup Winners Cup. Success on the European front loomed in the future as the club found a place in the 1969 Cup final,  before bringing home their first title in 1971. Starting with the magical victory in 1971 (CL Final vs Panathinaicos), Ajax went on to win three consecutive European Champions Cups. In 1972, led by the world famous Johan Cruijff, Ajax had one of the best seasons ever by a professional football team , winning the National Championship, the Dutch Cup, the European Champions Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.

The success of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s although impossible to duplicate was followed up by 25 more years of success for the club that included 11 National Championships in the final quarter of the century. The success was highlighted by another exciting venture in Europe as Ajax again became European and Intercontinental Cup champions in 1995.

Also, the club undestood  very early that its youth training was their best asset.  Ajax’s world famous youth training program,  produced some of the worlds best football players, a philosophy that is even more important to their success today. Their Youth Academy in addition to intense cooperation with the South African sister club Ajax Cape Town and a partnership with the Chinese football association,  produced the base of their future in the  Dutch  and European football. Tottenham their next  opponent , is one of the clubs reaping the benefits of using former Ajax players like Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertongen, Toby Alderveireld and Davinson Sanchez.

This is not the only tie between the two clubs; Ajax, like Tottenham suffer by anti- semitism in  the Netherlands and much of Europe, for  Ajax is known as a “Jewish club”. Amsterdam was a bustling center of Jewish life, home of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi community. This changed after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Many of the Nazi victims were Ajax supporters and so the club was branded as “Jewish” especially after some of the presidents and players in the sixties and seventies were Jewish. To counter that , a section of fans began to call themselves “Super Jews” with the Israeli flag as their symbol.

“I don’t like it,” David Endt, Ajax’s general manager between 1997 and 2013, told CNN.

But first things first: Ajax’s new signing Kjell Scherpen  aged 19, was ordered to write “Ajax is the most beautiful club in the Netherlands” 1000 times.

Categories: Analysis, Champions League

Tags: Champions League 2018-19, Tottenham vs Ajax, Tottenham vs Ajax Preview