AMSTERDAM (AFP) - Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff has been given the job of reviving the fortunes of his home club Ajax.

The Amsterdam giants have been forced to play second fiddle to arch-rivals PSV Eindhoven in the last few years and have not won their domestic championship since 2004 and this season trail PSV by nine points.

They have also struggled to compete at the European level, their last trophy being the 1995 Champions League title.

The club's directors held an emergency meeting on Tuesday and announced less than 24 hours later that a new technical and sporting structure would be put in place, to be headed by 50-year-old Cruyff.

The existing set-up would be scrapped and its president John Jaake would leave his job before the end of the season.

However, Cruyff insisted he will not be taking up any full-time post at the club where he made his name in two spells as a player and then as coach from 1985-88, during which he guided them to the now defunct Cup Winners Cup trophy.

"I will not become either sporting director, president or coach," said Cruyff, who was the fulcrum of the great Dutch side that reached the 1974 World Cup final where they lost to the then West Germany.

"I am simply going to reorganise the club, change it for the better.

"Ajax is my club and it hurts me when the club is doing badly, when it is not competing in the Champions League.

"I am going to help it get better."

Press reports said he would likely call in the current national team coach Marco van Basten to be his right-hand man in the new set-up after this summer's Euro 2008 competition as he is due to step down from his post.

"Marco is like me," commented Cruyff.

"Victory is not enough, there also needs to be beautiful football. I find that wonderful."