Ajax appeared on Wednesday with a striking player bus in Istanbul for the Champions League match with Besiktas (1-2). The Amsterdammers had exchanged the original stickering once for a variant with three colored birds, referring to the three little birds. Moreover, Ajax entered the billion-dollar ball for the first time in Turkey with the third black shirt. Earlier, the club received a slap on the fingers from UEFA and the birds had to be removed from the shirt, as it is in violation of the regulations.
Commercial director Menno Geelen denies that the new look a blow to the European Football Association. “Certainly not. UEFA has clear rules,” the director tells Ajax Life. “We have to stick to it. Whether we agree with it or not, we conform to it. We are free to do things off the field and we took that space. We missed the birds on Wednesday evening, but especially the supporters. In the video earlier that morning, we showed that even if they are not there, we know that they are still there. We could use the birds for that.”
Ajax has been playing in the black shirt since this summer. With the uniform, which was officially presented in mid-August, Ajax pays tribute to Bob Marley and his song Three Little Birds, which can be heard regularly in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. Three birds are depicted on the back of the original shirt, but they had to be removed by UEFA. It was the first time that Ajax could show the shirt to the rest of Europe on Wednesday. Until recently, the shirt could only be seen in the Eredivisie.
Geelen acknowledges that it was quite an operation to turn the team bus around. “Everything had to be done in Istanbul,” said the commercial director. “From arranging buses, to black wrapping on the day before the competition. The night before race day the birds had to be mounted and the pictures were taken. Creative colleagues from marketing and media meet regularly to devise, test and make things even better. A lot of plans fail, but luckily a lot is also being implemented.”