The legendary radio commentator Dick van Rijn spoke in his characteristic voice of “a shadow play in a gray wall”. More than half a century later, the general public is still talking about the “fog game”.

Klaas Nuninga, the inside left of the five-man avant-garde from Ajax, remembers quite differently, who overran the unapproachable Liverpool 5-1 on December 7, 1966 in the Olympic Stadium. “That was the beginning of an era.”

Nuninga (81) still describes the victory over the English as an exceptional achievement after all these years. “A real eye catcher. It was the first time people said to each other, “Hey, what’s going on here?”

Actually, says Nuninga, the much-discussed victory over the great Liverpool was the result of a happy coincidence. In the 1964/65 season, he came over from GVAV for the then astronomical transfer fee of 250,000 guilders.

The former schoolmaster from Winschoten, who led the class for an annual salary of 7,000 guilders until he moved to Ajax, was brought in as the man who had to take the wandering Amsterdammers by the hand.

Own cultivation

“Ajax only played with players from their own culture back then. I sometimes jokingly call myself the first foreign footballer to play in Amsterdam.”

However, the modest northerner did not have it easy in the first few years at Ajax. “It was a shame that a footballer went to another club for so much money. It was absurd. Because of this transfer, I had to live up to my feelings.”

In the 1965/66 season, Ajax even had to pull out all the stops in the fight against relegation. Thirteenth place this season is still the worst result in the history of the Amsterdam-based team.

Luck in the Ajax shirt only really smiled on Nuninga after the appointment of Rinus Michels as manager Vic Buckingham’s successor in 1965. “A direct hit.”

The new coach decided to increase the number of training sessions per week from three to eight. Football became a profession, freed from non-binding obligations.

Nuninga knows that it triggered a small revolution in the former De Meer stadium. “Our life as a full professional suddenly looked very different.”

More importantly, Nuninga says, the two young Amsterdam players who made their mark on the Amsterdam squad in 1965. “Piet Keizer and this little Cruijff were guys who really made the team complete. The moment the two came together, the team was complete in one fell swoop. It was like it had to be.”

With the two young attackers, the conundrum was put at the forefront. “With Henk Groot and Sjaak Swart on the right flank, we had five attackers who formed a real unit. We formed an attack that had incredible goalscoring power. In the 1966/1967 season we scored 122 goals. That’s a lot, isn’t it? Is not it?”

The match against Liverpool on that foggy Wednesday night 56 ​​years ago laid the seeds for a glorious episode for the Amsterdam side, winning the European Cup 1 and twice the World Club Championships.

“When people talk about the great Ajax, sooner or later this game always comes up. It’s a shame that the spectators in the stadium never got to see the intricacies of our game. People left the stands to go home to watch TV.” Then you saw the game a little bit better.”

Ultimately, it was more about the result than the game. “It’s very special when you play like that against the English champions.”

Targets not visible

And that for a competition that, according to the regulations, should never have taken place. The Italian referee Antonio Sbardella couldn’t see either goal from midfield, but he still kicked off the game at 8:15 p.m. sharp.

According to legend, the people of Amsterdam owed this to an illustrious duo. Tom “Hotdog” Mulder, then the capital’s self-proclaimed night mayor, and former referee Leo Horn looked after foreign referees refereeing European games for Ajax.

The night before the game against Liverpool in the center of Amsterdam, Sbardella was partied by the two until the early hours. The next day, he complied with Ajax chairman Jaap van Praag’s request not to opt for a refusal. “Not a nice trick,” his son Michael called it years later.

According to the circumstances, Ajax-Liverpool led to a match with many anecdotes. the prettiest? The story of how it came to 4:0.

After a whistle from Sbardella, around the 40th minute, Ajax’s right winger Swart left the field. Arriving in the catacombs of the Olympic Stadium, he was asked what he was doing there.

“It’s quiet, isn’t it?”

“It’s quiet, isn’t it?” asked the surprised “Paco”. When the attacker heard that no foul had been called at half-time, he turned back onto the field.

Back in the lines, Swart promptly got a pass to his feet. The black-haired attacker took the ball gracefully, dribbled down the touchline towards the corner flag, then passed the ball cleanly and saw through the haze as Nuninga headed the ball past Britain goalkeeper Danny Lawrence.

In the end it was 5:1. A great victory that Nuninga (previously also 3-0 maker) can not deny.

“But don’t flatten the return either,” says Nuninga. The second leg, a week later at Anfield, would be easily won 7-0 by his team, according to legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.

In the end it was 2:2. A match that Nuninga firmly believes is completely wrong Not burned into the collective memory.

In his opinion, the team from Amsterdam owed a lot this time to Barry Hulshoff, who was put in the back by Michels to head away all the balls. “We made fantastic combinations up front. This match is still very sharp on my retina.”

It’s a shame, says Nuninga, that unknown people also make football unloved. Take him at his word. “The 2-2 draw in Liverpool was at least as good a game as the 5-1 win in the fog.”