Today’s Dutch dailies have a dig at demi-god Johan Cruijff and reflect on a decade of gay marriage. They examine events in Ivory Coast, Syria and Japan. And there are startling front-page revelations about Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Johan Cruijff: hero or villain?
The battle for the future of Amsterdam football club Ajax is all over the Dutch dailies again today. Now that the board of directors has stepped down, it looks like Dutch football legend and club icon Johan Cruijff has won control. But the club’s self-proclaimed saviour is facing a bit of a backlash in today’s press.

Nrc.next’s opinion page depicts Cruijff as a hardnosed Mafia boss flanked by his henchmen Dennis Bergkamp and Wim Jonk. The article wastes no time in debunking the mythology surrounding the football hero: “He was never the visionary or successful manager that his legend suggests ... the facts reveal an egocentric manager who often blundered”.

AD wonders whether Cruijff really is “the Saviour” or whether “this demi-god is about to fall from his pedestal”. It talks to one commentator who warns “he made Ajax great but he can also raze the club to the ground”.

De Telegraaf’s front page presents Cruijff as a man of action, complaining that “there’s no time to lose” and that the board’s resignation is delaying much needed changes. But other papers are quick to point out that De Telegraaf is not exactly an impartial observer. De Volkskrant speaks of “an intimate special relationship” between the paper and the football legend – who is also a weekly columnist.

A decade of gay marriage
It’s been ten years since the first same-sex marriage in the Netherlands, a milestone covered by several of today’s papers. “Our love deserves the highest recognition,” declare Giovanni and Jethro, who are tying the knot today.

When five couples were joined in matrimony by the Mayor of Amsterdam ten years ago, one academic described it as “the completion of the journey towards legal equality between homosexuals and heterosexuals,” but the paper reckons that emancipation “still has a long way to go”. It points out that “while around 1,200 same-sex couples get married each year, violence against homosexuals is on the rise.”

There’s encouraging news too. Nrc.next reports that acceptance of homosexuality among the Dutch population still appears to be on the increase. A 2006 survey revealed that 15 percent of the population felt negatively towards homosexuality but a study two years later showed that this had dropped to 9 percent.

The paper also notes that there are still disparities between the rights of same-sex couples and their heterosexual counterparts: legal differences still apply with regard to parenthood and local government officials still have the right to refuse to officiate at a same-sex marriage if it goes against their own values.

Endgame in Ivory Coast; repression in Syria
As the crisis in Libya rages on, the front pages in the Netherlands focus on other areas of unrest. NRC Handelsblad and sister paper nrc.next look at the situation in Ivory Coast where troops loyal to elected president Alassane Ouattara are advancing on the city of Abidjan, where his rival Laurent Gbagbo is still clinging to power.

“Ivory Coast steels itself for endgame between Gbagbo and Outtara” is NRC Handelsblad’s headline, while nrc.next devotes its front page to an ominous photo of an armed gunman lying in wait amid the shrubbery on a traffic island. NRC Handelsblad reports that the UN Security Council has now given international legitimacy to Outtara’s cause, but goes on to warn that “if Outtara’s military victory turns into a bloody day of reckoning, Ivory Coast will be back to where it started, whatever the political justification”.

De Volkskant’s focus is on Syria. Its front page describes the contrast between the pleasant everyday hustle and bustle in the capital Damascus while “elsewhere a bloody battle between activists and the security forces is raging”.

In an editorial entitled “Like father, like son”, the paper presents President Bashar al-Assad as a man “who believes he can combat the unrest in his country with meaningless promises”. The hopes of reform that arose when he succeeded his dictatorial father in 2000 have now been dashed: “We can expect nothing from him but more repression.”

Pictures that lay bare Japan’s suffering
Two touching photographs capture the heartbreaking aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The centre pages of de Volkskrant are devoted to a bleak portrait of the Oyama family at the crematorium in Hurihara, next to the remains of one of three family members killed in the tsunami.

The accompanying text says: “The Oyamas can be considered lucky. The crematoriums cannot cope with the number of dead ... Thousands of tsunami victims are being temporarily buried in mass graves until such times as they can be cremated. Only then, according to Japan’s Buddhist tradition, can the spirit free itself from the body.”

The centre pages of nrc.next offer a more consoling scene, accompanied by the caption “the comfort of a Japanese banjo”. In the glow of improvised lighting, amid piles of cardboard boxes and blankets, a group of soldiers are playing the traditional Sanchin – a Japanese stringed instrument – and singing for the survivors in the north-easterly fishing village of Manamisanriku, where 70 percent of the homes have been destroyed and thousands of people are still missing.

Pulling the plug on Radio Netherlands Worldwide?
“Shut down Radio Netherlands Worldwide!” is the quote that’s making April Fools’ Day headlines in De Telegraaf today. But the paper doesn’t appear to be in the mood for joking, as it promises startling weekend revelations that “the idealist in the Dutch broadcasting firmament” is actually “a snake pit where there has been a veritable reign of terror on several fronts in recent years”.

It goes on to present a string of horrified responses by coalition MPs, shocked by tales of “backbiting and poor working conditions” related by “former employees whose lives have been completely wrecked”. The paper seems keen to contrast its scandalous accusations with the squeaky clean reputation of “an organisation that devotes government funds to freedom of speech and worldwide broadcasts”.

One Freedom Party MP happy to talk about “pulling the plug” on such high-minded activities used to work for RNW. So is this all just a case of sour grapes and disgruntled former employees with a score to settle? Or a thigh-slapping April Fools prank after all? The facts are so thin on the ground in De Telegraaf’s front-page teaser, we’ll just have to wait until the weekend to find out.