Valentijn Driessen does not foresee an exciting battle for the national title in the Netherlands in the coming years, partly due to UEFA. Ajax has no size in the Eredivisie, emphasizes the football chief of The Telegraph. “If Ajax loses points at the beginning of the season, that is due to Ajax and not to the opponent. However you try to fight the champion at the moment; nobody can withstand it on the Dutch fields,” Driessen concludes.
After seven match days, Ajax leads the way in the Eredivisie, with nineteen points from seven matches and a goal difference of 30-1. Driessen hopes that FC Utrecht and PSV, the next opponents of the team from Amsterdam in the Johan Cruijff ArenA, can make it as difficult as possible for the leader. “But given the current balance of power in the Eredivisie and the available player material, Ajax will be Ajax’s biggest opponent even in those two confrontations.”
“You also see this tendency in champions of Belgium, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland when they participate in the group stage of the Champions League for several years in a row,” continues the journalist of the daily. “The tens of millions in UEFA revenues are causing sporting imbalances nationally. ‘We care about football’, but in the meantime UEFA is turning the battle for the national title in the Netherlands down and helping to put the Eredivisie away as a Mickey Mouse competition.
Driessen states that Ajax is the team that determines how high a result is. The game view of SC Cambuur, ‘with an open mind’, FC Groningen, ‘on the Atlético Madrid tour’, or Fortuna Sittard, ‘in the manner of Sjors Ultee’, had no effect. “How high the result against Ajax is, is up to Ajax. Do they feel like accelerating for ninety minutes, or does the handbrake go on after half, fifteen minutes before time or at 5-0?” Driessen concludes.
Apart from a 1-1 draw against FC Twente, things only went wrong for Ajax this season. In the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale, PSV lost 0-4. The group stage of the Champions League started with a 1-5 victory over Sporting Portugal. Besiktas is the next opponent in the European billion-dollar ball on Tuesday evening.