Johan Cruyff biography creates storm

Johan Cruyff

The Hague: The author of a biography of Dutch football great Johan Cruyff was ordered Friday by a court to remove allegations in his book that the star took millions of euros from a charity bearing his name. Auke Kok's biography, which was released on Friday, was described as unreliable, and the 65,000 copies already printed must now be adapted with an insert to clarify information the author himself admitted he had come to doubt.

The book claimed Cruyff, who died aged 68 in 2016, received payment of one million euros ($1.1 million) per year from the Johan Cruyff foundation for use of his image with the author claiming in the text he had three sources in the player's entourage. "The passage about Cruyff receiving money from the foundation is flawed and must be rectified," the Amsterdam court said in a judgement on Twitter.

Kok said he now regretted the claim. "After this whole thing, I began to doubt the veracity of this claim. I should never have written it in that way," he told the court. Cruyff is considered one of greatest players of all time, having led Ajax to European Cup glory three times and winning the European footballer of the year award three times. He incarnated the concept of 'Total Football' played by a Netherlands side he spearheaded to the 1974 World Cup final. Later he won the European Cup again as Barcelona coach and set up their world-renowned youth training infrastructure.

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