Ajax to face off with Dutch counterparts

By Mark Gleeson

Two clubs, who bear the same name, colours and owners, meet head-to-head on the pitch this week in an unusual soccer match.

Ajax Cape Town, high-profile competitors in the South African premier league, on Wednesday host visiting Ajax Amsterdam, the Dutch champions who are spending a week of their northern winter training break in the Cape.

It is a meeting of the Dutch masters with their South African affiliates, a team who are the world's only real soccer franchise.

Franchising pizza parlours, hamburger joints or DIY stores might be commonplace in business but only Ajax Amsterdam have managed to clone themselves in the footballing world.

Ajax Cape Town are 50 percent owned by the Dutch team, staffed with coaches from the Netherlands, adhere to the same playing philosophy and wear the famous red and white colours of their Amsterdam counterparts.

Ajax have another franchise in Orlando, Florida, but it is only a youth club. Ajax Cape Town are a legitimate professional side in their own right, runners-up last year in the South African premier league and entrants in this year's African Champions League.

Their numbers include Congolese, South Africa and Zimbabwean internationals and they play their home matches at Newlands, Cape Town's world-famous rugby stadium.

The team were founded in mid-1999 when Ajax Amsterdam bought out two existing top-flight South African sides - Cape Town Spurs and Silver Stars - and amalgamated them into a single club.

The Dutch took 50 percent and the owners of the two clubs shared the other 50 percent, with the new team's players drawn from the two sides.

The franchising idea came from South African media tycoon Rob Moore, who had sold player Benni McCarthy to Ajax in 1996 and formed a friendship with Ajax Amsterdam's then managing director Maarten Oldenhof.

"The initial vision was to create an Ajax on every continent that would have the potential to become a continental champion and also serve as a gateway for players to go to Amsterdam.

"The best players in Africa would therefore be attracted to Ajax Cape Town and eventually, if good enough, progress to Holland, and the same would happen in Asia and South America," said Moore, who has since sold his interest in the club.

"Ajax were obviously attracted by the chance to get a pick of potentially exciting talent who had already been schooled in their style of playing."

But the broad idea was stymied when Fifa brought into effect regulations curtailing the transfer of players aged under 18 to clubs in Europe and Ajax cut back on their ambitious plans, never expanding their franchising idea beyond their South African affiliate.

The agreement allowed Ajax the pick of three players each year from their Cape Town side, although only Steven Pienaar has been deemed good enough over the last five years to make the grade in Europe.

The concept of Ajax Cape Town met with much resistance at first from the South African Football Association, who were against the sale because of fears that it would lead to a flurry of foreign owners of local clubs.

But the association eventually relented and the new Ajax made an immediate impression, finishing fourth in the league in their first season.

At the end of the month, Ajax begin their first campaign in the African Champions League which their coach Gordon Igesund hopes will lead to much more recognition for the club worldwide.

"We can emulate what Ajax have achieved in the past in the European Cup. I think we have a realistic chance of going all the way in this year's African Champions League," said Igesund, who has won three South African league titles with other clubs.

The Dutch side, ironically with two South African internationals - Pienaar and goalkeeper Hans Vonk - in their ranks, were arriving in Cape Town on Monday to begin a week-long training camp in the country, including Wednesday's match with their namesakes.

"We can gain so much experience from the match but we will not be overawed," promised Igesund.

"On the field of play, the fact that they are our parent club will just be a load of nonsense to my players."