AMSTERDAM: An Amsterdam court has declared illegal the appointment, from next season, of veteran coach Louis Van Gaal as football director of Ajax.

The action had been brought by Johan Cruyff, a member of the five-man executive council of the club where he made his name as aplayer in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Cruyff, a long-time critic of Van Gaal’s management style and concept of football, has objected that he was not notified in advance of the proposal to appoint Van Gaal at a council meeting last November.