Crisis club Ajax in turmoil after 18 months of abject mismanagement

Twice the players had been sent to the safety of the dressing-rooms. The second time they learnt they would not be returning to the field. There had, between interruptions, been 55 minutes played of Dutch football’s biggest domestic clash.

The scoreline of ‘De Klassieker’, Ajax against Feyenoord, was already too much for some home supporters to bear. After they hurled more fireworks and other missiles on to the pitch, the match was suspended, at 3-0 to Feyenoord.

What followed on Sunday raised further concerns about safety. Groups of fans outside Ajax’s Johan Cruyff Arena attempted to enter the stadium’s principal VIP entrance, damaging the doors and their surrounds.

Riot police discharged tear gas to disperse them. Up in the area where Ajax directors were gathered, the custodians of one of European football’s great institutions barely knew where to look: Outside the stadium or on to an emptied pitch littered with firework cartridges? At the crushing scoreline? Or at their own management.

By the end of a terrible day, a decision had been taken to sack the club’s sporting director, Sven Mislintat, after a controversial four months for the German in the role, his the latest exit in a period in which key personnel have left Ajax step by quick step and the club’s status as the dominant force in Dutch football diminished.

Fans have become angry and, at a fixture that always carries an edge, against Feyenoord, the full extent of the crisis was played out in scenes of vivid, violent confrontation.

“A very black day,” the Ajax manager Maurice Steijn called it. “Shame on you,” posted the Netherlands Justice Minister – and would-be next prime minister – Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, addressing fans who had ignored instructions inside