Mark Milner Soccer
Ajax, the Dutch football club, this week claimed a world first with the purchase of a South African soccer club with the aim of nurturing young talent.
Under the terms of a franchising agreement, Ajax, which is quoted on the Amsterdam stock exchange, is taking a 51% stake in Ajax Cape Town, which is being formed by the merger of two South African premier league teams, Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs.
Ajax has links with both clubs through the Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy, who played for them before signing for the Dutch club.
According to Rob Moore, joint chief executive of Ajax Cape Town, “Benni McCarthy is a living example of the talent Africa can produce when given a chance. We found Benni in the ghettos of Hanover Park. Two years later he is playing professional football for Ajax.”
Ajax believes the deal is the first time a professional sports team has franchised itself, but is betting that other European clubs anxious to find fresh talent and exploit their brand names will follow its lead.
The Dutch club, which has a reputation for grooming young players, is planning to bring its training methods to the new venture. It will invest $1,2- million in upgrading Cape Town Spurs’s training ground and set up an extensive scouting network. In return it will get first refusal on all the South African club’s players.
“I doubt whether Ajax’s move into South Africa will be the last franchising effort by Ajax or other clubs inside or outside Africa,” said David Bate, a vice-president of ABN AMRO, which advised Ajax on the acquisition of Ajax Cape Town.
Ajax believes the move will be good for shareholders. “Football is getting more global and the Netherlands is a pretty small country. When we came to the stock market we said we would invest the money we raised in a number of projects and this is one of them,” a representative said.