Three special friendly events added to Ajax-1 agenda
16 March: In the remaining months of the season Ajax's
first team will play three friendly fixtures
as contributions to three very special events. Friendly
matches against FC Volendam, a team of Moroccan professionals
and a special selection of amateur players from the Amsterdam
area have been added to the first team's agenda.
On Tuesday 30 March Ajax will once
again contribute to a special night of football in
Volendam, organized by the Volendam United foundation.
Only a few minutes into the year 2001 a brief, but
devastating inferno in a Volendam pub took the lives of 14
teenagers. Dozens of others were scarred for life.
Since the tragedy, known as the 'pub inferno', Ajax played
a friendly match against the local Eredivisie side every year.
The year 2004 will be no exception.
On 28 January 2003 the public turnout for the memorial
match was disappointing, due to the sharp
frost and cutting wind. It is probably for this reason that
Volendam United chose for a later date this year. Also, the
event will be different from previous years. Theme of this
year's memorial night will be Volendam Na
6ûûûh ('Volendam After Six').
The night will feature several six-a-side football
games, played on a pitch of 42 x 28 metres, including
matches of 'Old FC Volendam' versus 'Old Ajax' and a
six-a-side confrontation between players from the
clubs' respective first teams.
The 'Old Ajax' squad will consist of former
players (and in most cases current youth
coaches) such as Fred Grim, Danny Blind, Marco van Basten,
Sonny Silooy, Bryan Roy, Arnold Mühren, John van 't Schip,
Wim Kieft and - last but not least - Ajax head coach Ronald
Koeman. 'Old Volendam' will play with several former players
who also played for Ajax, such as Wim Jonk, Gerrie Mühren,
Keje Molenaar and Tom Sier. Last year's highly
controversial referee has also been invited again: Mr Bobby
Haarms.
The Ajax-1 players selected for the six-a-side friendly
against FC Volendam include Hatem Trabelsi, Julien
Escudé, Yannis Anastasiou, Steven Pienaar, Maxwell
and Daniël de Ridder. The program at Volendam's
Veronica Stadium will start at 19:00 CET.
(Source: FC Volendam.nl)
Update 25 February: Ajax has confirmed that the first
team will play a friendly match at the Amsterdam ArenA on
Wednesday 21 April against a specially
selected squad of Morroccan professionals, playing under the
name MarocProfs. The match, which will start at 20:15
CET, is part of a fundraiser for the victims and
surviving families of the 24
February earthquakes in the north of Morocco, around
the city of Al Houceima. The effect was devastating:
629 people were killed, 926 wounded. 2,630 houses were
destroyed completely. As a result of the earthquake 15,230
people in the are are now homeless.
The MarocProfs selection will consist of several Moroccan
players from the Eredivisie, including former Ajacied Tarik
Oulida and NAC Breda's Ajax loanee, Nourdin Boukhari. The
topscorer of the recent African Nations Cup, Youssef Mokhtari,
will also play for the MarocProfs - and so will former
African Player of the Year, Mustapha Hadji.
(Source: Ajax.nl)
Finally, Ajax will play a friendly game against a squad of
player from several amateur football clubs from the Amsterdam
area. Location will be Ajax's youth ground of De Toekomst on
Saturday 22 May, one week after the final
Eredivisie game of the season. This was announced by
Amsterdam's regional news network, AT5 Television.
Throughout the season Peter van de Rijt, connaisseur of the
city's amateur football, watched amateur games for his
report in AT5's weekly Ajax program, FC
Godenzonen. From every game Van de Rijt picked
his favourite player, thusly putting together 'AT5's
amateur team of Amsterdam'. During the season Ajax chairman
John Jaakke, general director Arie van Eijden and
coach Ronald Koeman gave their word to FC Godenzonen
host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk that Ajax-1 will play Van de Rijt's
squad at season's end.
According to AT5's teletext service the parties have
agreed on 22 May as the date for this fixture. The
Ajacieden to represent their respective countries at Euro
2004 will already have joined their national squads by
that date, but Ajax promised to field a representative line-up
against the amateur all-stars. No kick-off time for the fixture
has been announced yet.
(Source: AT5 Text) (MP).
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