Ajax claims no evidence of a conflict of interest with former director Mislintat

There were no indications of a conflict of interest by former Ajax Director of Football Sven Mislintat, the Amsterdam football club announced on Monday. The 51-year-old German was fired in September having lost broad support within the organization, Ajax said at the time.

The club then announced it would authorize an investigation into a possible conflict of interest involving Mislintat when Borna Sosa was transferred to Ajax. "No formal conflict of interest has been identified regarding Sosa's transfer," the club said in a statement attached to their upcoming shareholders meeting.

"Nor has a conflict of interest been identified with the other incoming transfers," Ajax said after an independent investigation by KPMG Forensic. "Mislintat's working method does raise questions, but there is no basis for liability."

Mislintat bought the left back on the final day of the transfer period. Both Mislintat and Sosa's agent, AKA Global, were shareholders of the company Matchmetrics GmbH around the time of the transfer. However, this in itself was not a problem, according to the investigation.

"Mislintat reported his shareholding to Ajax when he joined. It was not reported that AKA Global was also a shareholder of Matchmetrics at that time, but that was not relevant at the time. However, it would have been up to Mislintat to report this in the context of Sosa's subsequent transfer."

The fact that Sosa hired another agent at the last minute should also not be seen as problematic. "Based on the available information, no irregularities have been identified."

The investigation into the other transfers involving Mislintat has not yielded any indication of a possible conflict of interest. The former director brought in 12 new players.