Ajax’s new chief executive Alex Kroes is facing dismissal just two weeks after taking up the reins after club bosses accused him of insider trading.

Kroes bought 17,000 shares in the club a week before his appointment was announced on August 2 last year. He was unable to start work until March under the terms of an agreement with his previous club, AZ Alkmaar.

Ajax’s supervisory board commissioned independent legal advice which concluded that Kroes “likely engaged in insider trading,” the club said in a statement.

The 49-year-old has been suspended with immediate effect and the board intends to dismiss him from his post once it has organised an EGM for shareholders.

Michael van Praag, chair of Ajax’s supervisory board, said his colleagues were “deeply dismayed” by Kroes’s actions, which were “highly detrimental to the club.”

“The timing of his share purchase indicates insider trading,” Van Praag said.

“Such a violation of the law cannot be tolerated by a publicly listed company, especially when it involves the CEO.

“Untenable”

“After careful consideration, the supervisory board has therefore concluded that Alex’s position as a director of Ajax is untenable.”

Kroes said in a post on LinkedIn that he would fight the suspension and denied he had taken advantage of inside information when he increased his personal holding to 42,500 shares shortly before his appointment was confirmed.

“I am alleged to have had foreknowledge and traded on it. This is not the result of an indication from the supervisory authority, the AFM, but, in the words of the club’s supervisory board, on the basis of its own ‘moral compass’,” he said.

“I believe it shows confidence towards your fellow shareholders and stakeholders if you buy shares yourself and take on the financial risk. ‘Skin in the game’, as it’s known.”

It is the latest chapter in a troubled period for the Amsterdam club both on and off the pitch, which began with the departure of director of football Marc Overmars following revelations of sexual harassment.

Overmars, who moved to Belgian club Royal Antwerp is currently serving a one-year worldwide suspension imposed by football’s world governing body Fifa.

Transfer dealings

Last September Ajax sacked director of football Sven Mislintat, four months after his appointment as a result of “unrest in and around the club”. The club denied that the sacking was linked to an investigation into the purchase of a player whose agent was linked to Mislintat’s data analysis company.

A month later the club parted company with head coach Maurice Steijn after slumping to last place in the Eredivisie, having lost 4-0 at home to arch-rivals Feyenoord and 4-3 to fellow strugglers Utrecht.

The Dutch football association (KNVB) fined Ajax €25,000 for the crowd trouble that forced the match against Feyenoord on September 24 to be abandoned after 55 minutes.

The rest of the match was played out behind closed doors and Ajax’s hardcore F-side fans were banned from the following home game against Vitesse Arnhem.

The team have since risen to fifth place, 28 points behind leaders PSV, under the stewardship of John van ‘t Schip, who was appointed as interim coach until the end of the season.

Their most realistic chance of qualifying for Europe is through the end-of-season playoffs for the last spot in the Uefa Conference League.