Valentijn Driessen believes that Pier Eringa, for better or for worse, should leave Ajax. According to Driessen, the chairman of the Supervisory Board has completely failed as a supervisor by blindly following ‘charlatan’ football affairs director Sven Mislintat over the past year.
While Mislintat was released on Sunday evening after the canceled Classic between Ajax and Feyenoord, it is expected that even more heads will roll in the Johan Cruijff ArenA in the near future. As chairman of the Supervisory Board, Eringa is one of the leaders who is under fire. Ajax supporters have demanded the departure of the Supervisory Board several times in recent times.
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Driessen would find Eringa’s departure more than logical. “He simply let Mislintat spend 115 million euros on a series of bad purchases and gave him veto power over all technical decisions. Eringa’s escape route is via the position of chief of police in the national police. He was interviewed for that vacancy. Eringa, although now seriously damaged, can use such a new job to leave Ajax through the front door. If Eringa doesn’t leave willingly, then bad.”
If Eringa does not make his position available, the Ajax association (which owns 73 percent of the shares) should expel him through the shareholders’ association, Driessen believes. “The newly installed board of directors, chaired by Ernst Boekhorst and including ex-Ajax players Edo Ophof and Pim van Dordt, can threaten Eringa with voting out. On the authority of this board of directors, the Supervisory Board agreed to Mislintat’s dismissal late on Sunday evening. Before that, the Supervisory Board held the German’s hand over the head with its so-called ‘Diamantauge’ to mask its own failure.”
Driessen also calls for the departure of Jan van Halst, who has been interim director for several weeks. Before that, he was a member of the Supervisory Board, just like Eringa. “As commissioner of technical affairs, Van Halst was on top of everything. All million-dollar transfers – incoming and outgoing – at Ajax go through the supervisory board for final approval. Van Halst went along with all Mislintat’s stories, even though enough people at Ajax had long been warned about Mislintat’s practices.”
