It was a big surprise as Jan van Halst, an ex-footballer with a modest career behind him, was named the club’s interim chief executive in September. He only played a handful of games for the club, yet he has now emerged as both the spokesman and perhaps the symbol of the acute problems that exist at a club that feels like it is undergoing the most intense of identity crises.
Frustrations and anger that had been bubbling for months soon boiled over. Feyenoord were the visitors to the Johan Cruyff Arena for ‘De Klassieker’ — Dutch football’s biggest fixture and a fraught occasion at the best of times. Ajax went 3-0 down shortly before half-time. Shortly into the second half, projectiles (including fireworks) were thrown onto the pitch, endangering the safety of players.
The teams were taken off the field and the match was abandoned (Feyenoord won the replay 4-0). Afterwards, riot police had to disperse supporters as they tried to regain access to the stadium, with glass doors being smashed. While mayhem took hold outside, Van Halst appeared in the stadium’s press room fresh from a crisis meeting with other executives.
The problem is that the 54-year-old does not control strategy at Ajax. As the Dutch journalist Sjoerd Mossou wrote the following day for the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad: “No one is really the boss at the club at the moment — and at the same time, everyone is a little bit.”
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