super storm

Chapter 1304 Save Ajax
Although he is a good friend, Yang Yang has to admit that Van Basten is a great star, but he is not a successful head coach. He has never achieved satisfactory results in his coaching career.

During Ajax's coaching period, he was burdened with the high hopes of the team's management to regain the Champions League within five years, and invested a lot of money in the transfer market. Among them, Suleimani's transfer fee was as high as 600 million euros, twice the Dutch transfer record at the time, and it was also a quarter of Ajax's financial revenue.

It can be said that that big gamble was a disaster for Ajax. They wanted high input and high output, but the result was a complete failure. None of the players brought in had a satisfactory value. Soleimani played in Ajax for four years, and his performance was not ideal. In the end, he transferred to Benfica on a free transfer.

It can be said that in this gamble, Van Basten and Ajax's management completely destroyed all the funds of the club. Since then, Ajax has suffered losses every year without any improvement.

"Financial income has not increased, or even decreased sharply, and the transfer operation has failed. These have hit Ajax very hard, but it has been followed by the continuous increase in European football salaries in the past few years. From 50.00 to [-], Ajax's salary expenditure has increased by more than [-]% in the five years."

"This is not a problem with Ajax, it's a problem with Dutch football. Alkmaar declared bankruptcy and was supervised. Feyenoord almost followed suit. This traditional giant has been in a slump. At that time, thirteen clubs in the Netherlands were listed by the Football Association as having serious financial crises, but in fact there were more teams that did not appear on the list."

"Many people know what happened afterwards. A group of people led by Cruyff launched the Velvet Revolution and overthrew the management. They began to pay attention to financial health, so they reduced the number of players, saying that they wanted to clean up some useless players. But in fact, this is unrealistic. Ajax has been losing money over the years, and it is unable to make ends meet every year."

Guido Albes is obviously also very worried about the situation of Ajax. This veteran giant team still has considerable weight in the minds of many Dutch people, but unfortunately, the problems they are encountering now are very serious.

Yang Yang also has some understanding of this period of history, but not as deeply as Guido Albes. He still vaguely remembers that UEFA President Michel Platini proposed to merge Belgium with the Netherlands to form a new league, including Anderlecht, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and other famous European teams.

After Albes finished speaking, Wei Zheng also immediately showed what he had gained during this period of time.

"Ajax's capital reserve is very bad. It has been declining from more than 1000 million euros in [-], and now it has even reached the point where cash flow is seriously insufficient. In addition, the team's performance has been very sluggish over the years. Ajax's stock price has also been declining. Not long ago, it fell below [-] yuan, and now it is only about [-] euros, a record low."

"The current market value of the club is about 5000 million euros, and there is no assets at all. The total value of the first team is also a record low, and the team only holds 13.00% of the shares of the Amsterdam Arena.

"For this reason, Ajax needs to pay 1000 million euros in stadium rent every year, and Ajax's annual ticket revenue is about 3000 million euros. After deducting stadium maintenance and other expenses, the income is actually not much."

"The only thing that is commendable is that Ajax has no debts so far, but the current team operation is in a dilemma. Although the management has been working hard to adjust and maintain it, there is still a serious shortage of funds."

Yang Yang understands that cash is the key to a company's survival. Ajax is seriously short of cash now, and they lost a large chunk of income from the Champions League before the season, making the team's management even more embarrassing.

"I vaguely heard the news that Ajax is planning to find investors, and they need a sum of money to tide over the difficulties." Yang Yang said the information he got, which is why he asked Wei Zheng, Raiola and others to inquire about the information.

Van der Sar had a conversation with him before, which made him feel that the Ajax management has indeed realized the problem, and this team is his home team. Although it is not well managed, Ajax is still very well-established in football.

"Your information is correct. I heard that Invesco, an investment company from the United States, has some interest in Ajax. But you also know that the current situation of Ajax is not optimistic. Invesco is also getting involved in football for the first time, so both parties are very cautious." Guido Albes affirmed Yang Yang's information.

Yang Yang looked at the three people in front of him, "What do you think?"

"I don't think it's worth it. It's better to vote for the British Championship team." Raiola suggested from the perspective of a businessman.

Guido Albes pondered for a while, "I think Ajax has a solid foundation in the football field, which is why Van der Sar, Davis, De Boer, Bergkamp and others will return one after another in difficult times. The problem now is that Ajax needs a large sum of money to survive this difficult period and embark on a healthy development path again."

"Investing in Dutch clubs may not be a good deal, but I believe that you and I don't want to see Ajax fall into the quagmire like this, and with your capital injection, I believe Ajax will recover quickly."

Today's Yang Yang is really too popular.

He injected capital into Ajax today, and tomorrow the Eredivisie team will immediately appear on the pages of major media around the world, and their influence will skyrocket. In the future, when everyone mentions Ajax, in addition to the declining European giants, there is also Yang Yang's team. These are very helpful for Ajax.

More importantly, Yang Yang's funds can help Ajax overcome the current difficulties.

"What about you?" Yang Yang looked at Wei Zheng.

Wei Zheng smiled, "You've already made up your mind, why bother asking me?"

Yang Yang smiled wryly and nodded, "That night at the Grimaldi Conference Center, I talked a lot with Van der Sar. He said that for him, Ajax is his memory, so why not for me? Before, I always thought that sooner or later I would go back to Ajax."

Raiola looked at Yang Yang, then turned his head to look at Wei Zheng and Albes, and finally returned his gaze to Yang Yang. He sighed, and suddenly remembered Yang Yang's investment in Apple's stock, which he opposed at the time, but in the end, Yang Yang's profit was overturned, and it has more than ten times up to now.

At that time, Yang Yang bought Apple stock without thinking of making money at all, purely because of liking and interest.

He knew Yang Yang well, and he also knew that Yang Yang was an emotional person at heart.

"If you are really interested in Ajax, now is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to buy the bottom. The stock price has fallen to 5000 yuan, and the market value has also fallen to [-] million euros. I am afraid it will be difficult to fall again."

Raiola has spoken, and Yang Yang has a bottom line in his heart.

"Well, I will leave it to you to discuss. I can provide 5000 million euros for capital injection. You ask the Ajax management to come up with a plan. I want to know how they plan to spend the money and a plan for the next three years. But one thing must be clear, I must get the corresponding power from the supervisory board."

At present, 70.00% of Ajax's shareholding is privately held and is in the hands of the member organization of the Ajax Association, which is composed of Ajax management and members, and the remaining 20.00% is in circulation on the stock market.

Although it is a listed company, Ajax’s management structure is similar to other clubs in the Netherlands. It consists of a shareholders’ meeting, a supervisory board and a board of directors. Needless to say, the shareholders’ meeting is composed of shareholders.

Under normal circumstances, the shareholders' meeting has no right to interfere with the board of supervisors and the board of directors. In other words, it cannot intervene in the club's daily operations and decision-making.

Yang Yang is very familiar with the Dutch football model, but he is not a Kaizi himself. He has feelings for Ajax and hopes to help the team out of the predicament, but it is impossible to accept that he has paid money and become famous, but in the end he just acts like a mascot.

Even someone like Cruyff who doesn't have any shares and hasn't contributed a penny can join the board of supervisors and dictate the club's daily operations. Yang Yang can contribute real money. If he is not given the power, he will definitely not agree.

Wei Zheng nodded and smiled after hearing this. He wanted to remind Yang Yang of this just now, but Yang Yang himself was already prepared.

"Okay, leave this matter to us to discuss, don't worry, friendship belongs to friendship, but how to do business, and how to do it." Raiola is very clear.

Wei Zheng didn't have any comments either.

He is now Yang Yang's finance minister, and he knows very well that 5000 million euros is a timely help for Ajax, and the rain comes after a long drought, but to Yang Yang, it is nothing at all.

Among other things, Yang Yang has been getting rid of Rice Technology in the past two years, and he happens to have a lot of cash in his hands. Let alone 5000 million euros, even if he invests [-] million euros, I believe it will not be a big problem.

Of course, if Yang Yang really wants to acquire Ajax, it is really unrealistic.

At least Ajax's management and fans would not agree, and the gamble was a bit big. After all, no one knew whether Ajax could really turn around its business difficulties after receiving Yang Yang's capital injection.

Therefore, this matter has to be done slowly, first enter the market to test the water, it is really worth investing, Wei Zheng has a lot of ways.

(End of this chapter)