In the season 1935-36 Ajax decided a match by penalty series for the first time. This happened during the first round of the AROL toernament. At least for two seasons before matches during the tournament were als decided by penalty series.

Before (and also after) there were also other methods used to decide matches ending in a draw. As an example, Ajax goes to the second round in the Dutch cup after a draw thanks to the rule that in case of a draw the away team wins. During friendly tournaments fate often decided the winner in case of a draw. In the early years of Dutch soccer in some situations matches were extended until there was a winner, in the seasons 1908-09 and 1909-10 Ajax was involved with two matches (both for the Gouden Kruis) that took 5 times 15 minutes of extra time before there was a winner.

During the first penalty series that Ajax was involved with three penalties were taken in a row by one player, followed by 3 penalties by a player from the other team. If case no decision had been made another series of three penalties would follow.

In season 1967-68 for the first time an official match of Ajax was decided with a penalty series. Ajax beat FC Twente in the semi final of the Dutch Cup with 5-1. Like nowadays the penalty series started with a series of 5 penalties by 5 different players, with the difference that all penalties from one team were taken first. Ajax won the toss and decided to start because they expected they would score many penalties and this way would put the pressure on the opponent. Ajax scored all penalties, FC Twente missed the 2nd, hence it ended in 5-1.

In season 1972-73 Ajax was involved in a penalty series in which the penalties were taken alternating between the teams for the first time. Because NAC scored their first three penalties in the second round of the Dutch Cup match, and Ajax missed the first three, the series ended in the somewhat uncommon score of 3-0.

Below tables with the following statistics with respect to the penalty series in which Ajax was involved: All Official Matches Decided by Penalty Series, Most Scored Penalties and Most Missed Penalties.