Ajax will publish bright red annual figures in October, that is the expectation of The Telegraph. According to the newspaper, the financial damage is mainly due to the generous compensation arrangement that Ajax agreed with its own supporters last season. Reimbursing season tickets and related costs resulted in a damage amount of 35 million euros.
Because the fans were not welcome in the Johan Cruijff ArenA for almost the entire 2019/20 season, Ajax offered a compensation scheme. Supporters received the full amount paid for the season ticket back, unless they decided to give up on their own initiative to support the club. On top of that, Ajax did not get any income from single ticket sales, while in a normal season with European matches that yields an amount of seventeen million euros.
In total Ajax expects to have 55 million euros in ticket income in a non-corona year from season tickets (13 million euros, single sales nationally (7 million euros), single sales for the European duels (10 million euros), sky boxes and business seats ( 15 million euros) and hospitality packages (10 million euros).The total damage from lost income and refunded money would have risen to 35 million euros, we know The Telegraph. Ajax itself is not allowed to confirm that amount as a listed company.
The damage item also has consequences for Ajax on the transfer market, although Marc Overmars still has ‘a pot’ of sixteen million euros. The director of player affairs may spend that amount on a player who is seen as a direct reinforcement, as was the case with Kamaldeen Sulemana. The attacker chose Stade Rennes at the last minute, which means that Ajax is still looking for an attacking reinforcement with speed.
Ajax does not feel the need to sell players, because the offer of twenty million euros for Edson Álvarez from Stade Rennes was not answered with a ‘yes’ by Overmars. The adage within Ajax is to ‘strengthen, not weaken’. The French sup-topper did not hesitate to bring in Baptiste Santamaria from SC Freiburg as an alternative and therefore seems out of the race for Álvarez.
In the 2019/20 season, which was interrupted early in the Netherlands due to corona, Ajax recorded a net profit of 20.7 million euros. This was mainly due to a positive transfer balance of 84.5 million euros, created by the sales of Matthijs de Ligt and Kasper Dolberg, which fell in that financial year. The operating result, so without transfers included, was already 3.2 million euros in the red.
Ajax will also be saved by transfers in the 2020/21 season, because Donny van de Beek, Hakim Ziyech and Sven Botman are included in that financial year, and jointly brought in about 90 million euros. However, the operational result will be deep red, as Ajax itself announced last year.