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Cape Town - Ajax Cape Town face Free State Stars on Wednesday night at the Goble Park Stadium in the Absa Premiership in a must-win encounter for the Cape side who are languishing at the foot of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) table.
The Urban Warriors are sitting second from bottom in the standings after a series of poor performances resulting in a managerial change, as outgoing coach Roger de Sa was replaced with the club's head of youth, Dutch coach Stanley Menzo.
According to reports, after failing to register a win as yet in the 2016/17 season, De Sa decided to hand in his resignation after suffering his latest defeat in a 2-1 home loss at the hands of Gavin Hunt's Bidvest Wits.
Ajax Cape Town CEO Ari Efstathiou swiftly released a statement through the club's website thanking De Sa for his time and efforts at the club while confusingly saying that he foresaw De Sa returning to the club in some capacity in the future.
A Sport24 source though said that despite media reports that De Sa decided to resign, the truth is that he was in fact pushed out of the door after initially refusing to leave, as he believed he could turn the team's form around.
Efstathiou however made it clear to De Sa that he did not want to sack him, but also could not retain his services due to the club's league position.
Thus the motive behind the decision boils down to money, which is a stick continuously used to beat the Ajax hierarchy with as several former players and staff have accused the owners of looking after their own pockets, instead of the future of the club.
The bottom line is that Efstathiou could not afford to fire De Sa, as he would have had to pay out the remainder of De Sa's contract or at least a large part of the remaining term.
So with De Sa technically resigning, a much more favourable deal could be struck.
De Sa has remained silent since leaving the club, but sources within the club confirmed that he grew frustrated at how the club was being run which resulted in a souring of the relationship he had with the owners.
Former Ajax Cape Town coach, Muhsin Ertugral, who also left the club under uncertain circumstances after claiming victory over his former club with Mpumalanga Black Aces, displayed a crude hand gesture in the direction of the Ajax owners and dedicated his side's victory to former Ajax CEO John Comitis.
Former Ajax youth product, Abubakar Mubara, who was recently signed by Ertugral at Orlando Pirates, hit out at the Efstathiou family in a scathing attack, claiming that they knew nothing about football and were running the club into the ground.
These signs point to the fact that there is a much bigger problem as to why the Urban Warriors find themselves in the position they are in with an increasing number of fingers being pointed at the CEO.
