Financial services firm Aegon has announced it will donate shirt sponsorship rights for Dutch Eredivisie football club Ajax to disabled sports charity Fonds Gehandicaptensport.
Under the terms of the arrangement, the reigning Eredivisie champion will play its away games during the first half of the 2014-15 season with the Fonds Gehandicaptensport logo on its shirt. Aegon’s logo will continue to feature on Ajax’s shirt during home games, with the initiative marking an expansion of a project that has typically seen the club feature the charity’s logo on its shirt for one home game per season.
Marco Keim, chief executive of Aegon Netherlands, said: “Together with Ajax we stand as one behind Fonds Gehandicaptensport. In the past three years, the fund had a home game per season on the Ajax shirt. Now that the (Aegon sponsorship) contract has been extended by six months we want to support the fund by raising awareness in the rest of the country.”
Ajax last month signed a short-term extension to its main sponsor deal with Aegon. Under the terms, Aegon will retain Ajax’s front-of-shirt sponsorship for an additional six months until December 31, giving the Amsterdam-based club more time to find a replacement lead partner.
The extension is estimated to be worth €3m ($4.1m) and Aegon will remain as a ‘regular sponsor’ until the end of June 2017, with the option to renew for a further 12 months.
In November 2012, Ajax announced it was on the lookout for a new shirt sponsor after Aegon said it would not extend its contract beyond the end of the 2013-14 season. Aegon has elected to downgrade its involvement from the 2014-15 campaign.