Ajax first Dutch club to give female players their own labor agreement

From next season the Ajax women's team will have their own collective bargaining agreement, the Amsterdam football club announced. Ajax is the first Dutch club to give its women's team their own labor agreement. Ajax called this the next step in professionalizing women's football.

General director Edwin van der Sar and Ko Andriessen of union ProProf singed the collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday. According to Ajax, it gives women basically the same kind of conditions the men's teams have. This includes guaranteed minimum conditions in terms of wages, vacation days, contributions to health insurance and continued payment in the event of injuries.

"Clubs have been struggling for some time with employment contracts for female players, because normal employment law has its limitations in the sports world", Daphne Koster, manager of women's affairs at Ajax, said in a statement. She hopes that other Dutch football clubs will join the collective bargaining agreement. "With the advent of this collective agreement, we can take the next step in the professionalization of women's football."

Just before the World Cup started in France, national football association KNVB announced that it will bring the commercial compensation for Oranje women up to the same level as the Oranje men in the next four years, NOS reports. But the Dutch Eredivisie is still lagging behind. The women's Eredivisie only had nine active clubs last season. One of them, Achilles '29, disbanded due to money troubles, according to the broadcaster Other teams also have difficulty keeping their heads above water.