Rik van den Boog (born in Amsterdam, 1 September 1959) is a Dutch manager and former football player. After several positions in Xerox, Libertel, Vodafone, Orange. After becoming a shareholder in The Entertainment Group (TEG), he became the General Manager of

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the ...

in November 2008, a position he relinquished on 1 June 2011.

Earlier careers

Van den Boog, a footballer, went through Ajax's youth academy from 1975 to 1983. He entered its second team. An ankle injury meant the end of his football career. He completed his teacher training at J.W. Willems in 1985 and went to work for Rank Xerox from 1986 to 1999, when he became a member of the Board of Directors of Libertel. After Vodafone Netherlands took over Libertel, Van den Boog became its director of distribution. He left Vodafone in August 2002, according to the management for personal reasons. He had a short career position in Orange Netherlands from 2003 to 2004 as a director of commerce. In 2005 he became co-shareholder of The Entertainment Group (TEG). Before he could start at Ajax, he had to divest the TEG's Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) division that represented footballers and trainers. The TEG company went bankrupt in September 2009.

At AFC Ajax

Van den Boog became general manager at

on November 17, 2008 succeeding Henri van der Aat, who acted as interim director after the departure of general manager Maarten Fontein. Van den Boog's appointment was as per final recommendations of the "Coronel report". He came under fire at the beginning of 2011 after he refrained from following recommendations from a working group led by

Johan Cruijff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a p ...

. With the rift growing, Cruijff repeatedly voiced direct criticism of Van den Boog. On 17 April 2011, Van den Boog announced that he was canceling his contract with AFC Ajax. He left the club on 1 June 2011. He was succeeded in November 2011 by

Martin Sturkenboom Martinus Richardus Maria "Martin" Sturkenboom (born April 3, 1953 in Utrecht) is a Dutch entrepreneur, former chairman of professional football club FC Utrecht, interim general manager of AFC Ajax and internationally active as delegate of UEFA an ...

, who would act on an interim basis until

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spel ...

took over the club as general manager.

After Ajax

After Ajax, van den Boog became the managing director of VanRiet Material Handling Systems, resigning in 2018.LogisticsBusiness: VanRiet Hunts New MD as van den Boog Steps Down
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boog, Rik Van Den Dutch chief executives 1959 births Living people Dutch football chairmen and investors Footballers from Amsterdam Businesspeople from Amsterdam Association footballers not categorized by position Association football players not categorized by nationality