Shortly before the reappointment of Marc Overmars as technical director on January 28, the club management of Ajax received the first reports about cross-border behavior by the director who has since resigned. General director Edwin van der Sar announced this before the meeting with FC Twente.
By Johan Inan
,,We received the first noises halfway through the week before Marc left. We then engaged an external party to seriously investigate the reports. Later that week, the scope became clear and the next steps were taken”, Van der Sar started.
The director of Ajax sent an internal email on January 25, encouraging colleagues to report cross-border behavior internally. That happened. Several (former) Ajax employees reported shortly afterwards about the behavior of technical boss Overmars.
We called in an independent agency because we wanted to investigate whether there is a grain of truth in these sounds and felt that a hearing should be heard.
These first sounds reached Van der Sar shortly before the official reappointment of Overmars on January 28, the general manager acknowledges. Why, then, was the extraordinary meeting not postponed? “That is up to the RVC,” said Van der Sar, who informed the board shortly before the meeting.
Why then did Ajax not postpone the previously agreed contract extension? “These were the first signals,” says Van der Sar. “They had not yet emerged from thorough research. It’s not nothing. Colleagues have been affected. We wanted the right steps to be taken. We engaged an independent agency, because we wanted to investigate whether there is a kernel of truth in these sounds and felt that both sides should be heard.”
Overmars and Ajax detonated a bomb last Sunday evening with the press release announcing the departure of the director of football affairs. For a long period, Overmars was guilty of transgressive behavior towards female employees of the Amsterdammers, which made a departure inevitable.
,,I am deeply ashamed”, Overmars went through the dust on the club website. The former top attacker immediately resigned from his duties and risks a lifelong suspension in Dutch football.
Stories about Overmars
• Marc Overmars fell off his pedestal because of his transgressive behavior towards female colleagues. A return as a director seems unthinkable. Or is there still a way for Overmars to return to society and football?
• Ajax coach Erik ten Hag was ambushed on Saturday by a phone call from departing director Marc Overmars. The news about transgressive behavior still has to land, says the coach.
• Columnist Sjoerd Mossou absolutely sees the seriousness of the Overmars gate, but thinks that it is also time to laugh a bit.
• The painful departure of director Marc Overmars from Ajax has not yet prompted other Eredivisie clubs to conduct an internal investigation into the nature and extent of transgressive behavior in their own workplace.
• Has success gone to the head of the biggest club in the Netherlands?
Watch our videos of Ajax below.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#Ajax #management #supervisory #board #heard #crossborder #behavior #Overmars #contract #extension