Dutch state-owned banking group ABN Amro has been announced as Eredivisie football club Ajax’s new ‘Partner of the Future’.
The deal will run for three-and-a-half years from January 1, 2015 until June 30, 2018.
The bank is to pay, on average, €2.55m ($3.19m) per year as part of the deal, with a further €300,000 in variable payments to the reigning Dutch champions.
ABN Amro was the main sponsor of the Amsterdam club for 17 years until 2008, and part of the new deal will see its name on the shirts of the youth, women and Ajax’s Saturday amateurs’ teams.
It will also be the club’s social partner and the company’s logo will be prominently displayed on the Toekomst (Future) Sports Park.
Telecommunications company Ziggo became Ajax’s first-team shirt sponsor in a four-and-a-half year deal worth an annual €8m earlier this month.
Edwin van der Sar, Ajax’s director of marketing and former Uefa Champions League winner with the club, said: “ABN Amro aims to encourage talent in the Netherlands. This fits well with our ambitious plans for the future.
“For me, it's a nice touch because of what I achieved in the time that ABN Amro was the main sponsor. I am glad that we will work closely again.”
ABN Amro is headquartered in Amsterdam and was nationalised by the Dutch government in 2009.