Tel Aviv big game - Maccabi Vs Hapoel- The fashion police

Well, the season ended with one of the big games in the Israeli football scene.
As expected there was lots of action in the supporters scene.

"The fashion police" was the the name in WALLA.CO.IL, which can describe the action of the fans. Last derby Maccabi fans brought to the game lots of yellow umbrellas, the police decided to take all the umbrellas. All the media laught about the police.
This time The Fashion police had other mission - it told all Hapoel fans with specific T-shirt to take it off. The fashion police gave them the option to change the shirt or... to go naked .
One of Maccabi big supporters club is the "The 12 player". He is very activ in the stadium. Most of his members are young fans. Hapoel fans made a special shirt of the Derby "The 12 bitch". The police station of Blumfild stadium, which the game took place, is monitoring in the last months racist and unproper behaviour. That is the reason why she told the fans to take of the shirts...

In previous Derby this year, Maccabi fans made an amazing firework show in the stadium, and open one yellow firework at Hapoel terrace. In the 86 minute of game, Hapoel fan ran into the field with red firework straight to Maccabi terrace, and throw it there. Dont ask where the police was, everyone are looking for the answer.
But when the fan came back, Kobi Musa - Maccabi player, made a la Cantona action. He ticked the fan in the face, and knocked him down.


p.s. If you wonder Hapoel won 3-0.

Boston tea party at Petach Tikva

Hapoel Petach Tikva fans made in the 25.5.07 the Boston tea party, as part of their campaign against the team owners – Ronen Elad and Meir Shamir.
Hapoel Petach Tikva fans choose the name "Boston tea party", because it symbols to the first act for the freedom of the US from Great Britain.
Why Boston? Ronen Elad, the official owner stays a lot in Boston.
Why tea party? Because time after time, different peoples which are messangers of the owners, choose to describe Hapoel Petach Tikva fans as Barbarians and violent. That their acts "forced" Meir Shamir to leave to team, and stop being her sponser.
The idea was to make an act which says "We are civilized people with British manners".


In the act, which took place in front of Ronen Elad office in the Industrial zone of Petach Tikva, the fans sat around big table and drank tea with cookies. Next to them was a stand with the sign "Clean table", to symbolize that there are still many debts of the managements that stops any new people to try and buy the team.





The original tea party form wikipedia

Hapoel Petach Tikva fan clubs
The panters
The Blue Front
The Hapoel Petach Tikva umbrella fans organization

League stracture and the centers

The Israeli football has 6 divisions. The Supper Legaue – Toto league (Ligat Ha'al), which has 12 teams. The premiere league (Liga Leumit), also with 12 teams and the National one with… 12 teams (Liga Archit) .The next ones are league A with two regions north and south with 14 teams each .Under that there is league B , with four regions – north a, north b , south a ans south b – each one has 16 teams .The last one is league C with many small regions.
The teams of the Supper League :
Beitar Jerusalem , Maccabi Tel Aviv , Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa , C.S. Ashdod , Maccabi Natanya , Hapoel Kfar Saba, Bnei Yehuda , Hachoa Amidar – Ramat Gan , Hapoel Petach Tikva , Maccabi Herzelia , Maccabi Petach Tikva.
You probably noticed that most of the teams has similar parts in their names – most of them Maccabi and Hapoel .

The centers

To understand is the Israeli football culture it is important to be aware to the centers.
The centers are remaining from the days that Israel was established . each political group had its own center that gave money to his team …each team used to be politically attached with the parties. These centers are not only football issues , they relevent to all Israeli sport .

Maccabi – Named after the Maccabim – which were jewish rebellion 2000 years ago . Maccabi movement was founded by Max Nordau as a sportive jewish movement .
Hapoel – Established as the union if the workers and it aim was to develop the sport culture . It main color is red , so many of it teams plays that color . Used to be the left wing , these days the teams are private , but some still remain with the socialist agenda .
Beitar – Not many teams but it has the Jerusalem team , which known as Beitar .Beitar was the revisionst side – right wing .Established in 1923 by Zeev Zabotinsky. As part of its action , Beitar dealed with sport.
There are few more centers , such Elitzor – the religious one and some small other .

Intro

My name is Shay Golub . In the last months I am working to establish the Israeli football supporters organization. Some weeks groups of German friends came to Israel as part of Yad Achat organization . Some of them were deeply involved in the German supporters scene . We spent lots of time talking about the German and the Israeli supporters scenes . When they came back to Germany we scheduled that I will send them every three month some stories about the Israeli football culture and reverse . So the best solution untill our web site will be online is this blog.
Beside that a lot of people around the world are interested in Israel for all kind of reasons , ans this blog aim is to show these people other perspective of Israel.