Martin Jol quits as Ajax manager

Martin Jol has resigned as trainer at Amsterdam’s Ajax football club. Ajax General Director Rik van den Boog has been holding talks with Jol over recent weeks. He says it had become increasingly obvious that the manager felt he couldn’t continue his work with the club successfully.

Ajax hope to be in a position to announce Jol’s successor sometime before the new year. Meanwhile, the board has named Frank de Boer as interim trainer - he will lead the club till the season’s winter break. Former Ajax player De Boer is coach of the club’s A1 youth team and is also assistant to the Dutch national squad’s trainer Bert van Marwijk.

Martin Jol took up the post with Ajax on 1 July 2009. The club finished the 2009-2010 season in second place in the Dutch Premier Division. Under his leadership, Ajax won the Dutch FA Cup and hopes were high for a national championship title which the Amsterdam club last held in the 2003-2004 season.

So far, this season has been a difficult one for Ajax and the club’s performance in the Champions League was a major disappointment. Their September away match against Real Madrid was a painful defeat. This led to a debate about the team’s game and the technical leadership of the squad. Ajax icon Johan Cruijff played a leading part in the discussion. The criticism refused to go away and it appears that this has proved too much for Jol and the club’s board.