Ajax agree technical partnership with FC Omniworld
20 May: Ajax have officially announced a new 'technical
partnership' with a lower division Dutch football club: FC
Omniworld from Almere. As per July 1st 2005 the two clubs
will work together on a 'strategic and technical level' for
five seasons (until 30 June 2010). FC Omniworld played in the
Sunday Hoofdklasse ('Top Class') of Dutch amateur
football last season, but are hoping to 'go professional' this
summer and enter the First Division.
In their press release Ajax underscore that
'Ajax will not have any influence on the policies of
FC Omniworld. Nor will Ajax have any influence in the Omniworld
board, a vote in the decision process or a stake in the club.'
The clubs will exchange information on a regular basis. Ajax's
general director, Arie van Eijden, explains: "This partnership
is a win-win situation. Ajax can place talented players
from our youth system in a competitive and physically
heavy competition. FC Omniworld, in their turn, can use one of
the best youth development systems under Ajax's
conditions."
FC Omniworld are from the town Almere, a 'commuter town'
of approximately 150,000 inhabitants, east of Amsterdam,
in the youngest province of The Netherlands: Flevoland, an
area entirely 'impoldered' after World War II. The population
of Almere has a natural focus on Amsterdam: many inhabitants
are born Amsterdammers themselves, but moved out of
the city due to additions to their families or the
notoriously high housing and living expenses in
Amsterdam.
It is mainly for that reason that the partnership between
Ajax and Omniworld seems more viable than the still existing
but simmering partnership between Ajax and First Division
outfit FC Haarlem. Haarlem, is about as close to
Amsterdam as Almere, but much more of an economically
independent city with hardly any demographic, historical or
cultural links with the Dutch capital. At the proud local
football club, FC Haarlem of 1889, Ajax were regarded as
'intruders' or 'imperialists' rather than as partners by the
local fans. Ajax youngsters such as Brutil Hosé,
meanwhile, refused to move to
Haarlem. Hosé feared he would be side-tracked
at the struggling First Division side, and that there would be
no way back to Ajax for him.
The partnership with FC Haarlem still exists, but is very
low-key today: Haarlem is no longer Ajax's 'satellite club' but
a 'technical partner'. There are no Ajax loanees
in Haarlem's current first team, nor are there
are any remaining Ajax coaches or board members. The link
between Ajax and FC Omniworld seems more
'natural'.
The two 'partners in crime' will play each other in a
pre-season friendly at the Amsterdam ArenA this summer:
on
03 August at the Amsterdam ArenA. The two clubs also
played each other in a friendly in Almere on
10 July 2004 (MP)
Update 29 June 2005: It's official: FC Omniworld
received their license from the KNVB today and will be a
professional First Division football club as per 01 July 2005.
The KNVB reviewed the club's business plan and inspected
their facilities, and concluded that they meet the
requirements. FC Omniworld had to promise the KNVB that they
will have one artificial pitch by 12 August. (Source: NOS
Teletekst).
Source: Ajax.nl
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