“What do you miss most about England?” is
a question I’m often asked as a new immigrant. My reply generally doesn’t
contain words like ‘weather’, ‘the Queen’ or even ‘wearing the obligatory suit
and tie for work’.
In fact my response always contains the
three F’s – Family, Friends and Football. My assumption is that most of you
regard the first two as self-explanatory, and therefore I’m going to dwell on
the latter.
The first hard decision I had to make
upon arriving in Israel was nothing to do with the army service I would do, or
which party to vote for in the elections, but which football team to support.
The traditional method of affiliating with a team is having it bestowed at
birth, generally from the father. My Brit (covenant) was to an extremely
rich and successful English team, two things that are sorely lacking in Israel
football. My rudimentary knowledge of
the Israeli game split the teams into the following categories:
a) How far
away do they play from where I live: This was made tricky by the fact that I
lived in Jerusalem when I arrived in Israel, in the knowledge that I would be
living in the north as soon as opportunity arose.
b) What colour
shirts do they wear: Could I really support a team that doesn’t wear red?
c) Politics:
Hapoel teams are traditionally affiliated with the Histadrut (trade
union) and Betar with the right wing.
d) How
successful are the different teams: What is known as a ‘glory supporter’ in
England is certainly frowned upon there, but hey, picking a team is so
unnatural anyway, why not pick a team that might do well.
e) Teams
containing players I liked / disliked: From the few players I recognize, could
I support a team with Giovanni Rosso in it?
So my thought process went something like
this: I live in Jerusalem and the obvious option is Betar Yerushalayim. They
are a big club (by Israeli standards) but they are very right-wing politically
– do Hapoel Yerushalayim still exist? So lets look to the north because that is
where I’d like to live. Haifa has two decent teams, Maccabi and Hapoel. Maccabi
are a good team, but they wear green. But they also had Yossi Benayoun who’s a
fantastic player. But what about Hapoel Haifa – they wear red and they are the
workers’ team, but they had Rosso who I took an immediate dislike to for being
a bit of a wide-boy.
So, “What was the final decision?” I hear
you ask. Well I opted to actively not-support Betar Yerushalayim and go to the
Teddy Kollek Stadium when the big teams came to town and sit with the away
fans! I’m genuinely attempting to enjoy Israeli football as a spectacle rather
than losing my sense of objectivity by blindly following one team.
In terms of attempting to follow the
spectacle, the last three years have been extremely exhilarating – full of
drama, joy and disappointment, all intrinsic ingredients of the ‘beautiful
game’. From traveling to a dull encounter in Haifa against a far superior Ajax
side, to Hapoel Tel-Aviv’s sensational victory over Chelsea, European club
football is exciting - even in Israel. Hapoel Tel-Aviv’s run last year in the
UEFA cup, hosting teams such as Chelsea and the great AC Milan, ignited the
imagination of our whole nation – a little respite from the realities of the
conflict.
This season, Maccabi Haifa have gone
further to uplift the nation from the sporting arena than even the extremely
successful Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team. The morning after the victory that
made Maccabi Haifa the first Israeli team to qualify for the lucrative
Champions League, one of the national daily newspapers had devoted the entire
front cover (which was the ghastly green that the team wears) to the story. In
a period of escalating violence and terror, the football coverage knocked these
news stories not just off the front cover, but also from pages two and three
(also green!).
Every member of a Jewish youth movement
is asked at some point, “Whom would you support if England played Israel?” This
was a question that reverberated in my ears as UEFA
Chief Executive, Gerhard Aigner picked Manchester United and Maccabi Haifa to
play one another in this season’s Champions League. Euphoria soon dissipated to
disappointment upon the realization that I would see neither game – the expense
of a trip to Manchester for the first and the small matter of my army service
preventing me traveling to Cyprus for the second ‘home’ match, put paid to any
dreams of experiencing first-hand my dual loyalties. Suffice it to say, I’ll be
rooting for both teams, but will be extremely disappointed if Manchester United
don’t pick up the necessary points for qualification to the next stage. If
Haifa win any points at all, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. But one thing is for
sure, I’ll be cheering them on - along with the rest of the country.
Unfortunately, UEFA have
deemed Israel unsafe to host both European club matches and any international
games. Romania and Bulgaria were touted as potential alternative locations but
it seems that Cyprus have now been chosen as a home from home. It seems we
won’t be seeing the likes of Manchester United, or last years beaten finalists
Bayer Leverkusen, on these shores any time soon. I can now empathise with those
Liverpool fans who last season expected their team to travel to Israel and play
the very same Maccabi Haifa in the UEFA Cup (I was ready to cheer on my
greens against the scousers!). Liverpool were saved the journey when Haifa were
disqualified for fielding an ineligible player, Walid Badir, in the previous
round.
Israeli footballers have enjoyed varied
success playing their club football in Europe. Haifa born Ronny Rosenthal shone
in England in the 1990’s, playing for both Spurs and Liverpool. He scored a hat
trick on his full debut for Liverpool in 1990, "That was the original
hat-trick," commented the legend Kenny Dalglish afterwards, "first
the right foot, then the left and finally the head”. Bonnie Ginsberg excelled
in goal for Glasgow Rangers and today Haim Revivo, a Jew playing in Muslim
Turkey, is revered as the man that broke Galatassaray’s dominance in Turkish
football by being Fernerbahce’s player of their championship-winning year. Last
but by no means least, Kibbutz-born Eyal Berkovic has played in the top flight
in both England and Scotland consistently for the past 6 years.
For every success, a foreign sojourn has
often ended with, at best, bench-warming duties, and at worst, complete
anonymity. Avi Nimni (Derby), Walid Badir (Wimbledon) Najwan Grayeb (Aston
Villa), Idan Tal (Everton) and Alon Hazan (Watford) have all left Britain in
recent times for failing to make the grade.
This season, the new cable television
channel here in Israel is covering the Turkish League, the Spanish League and
the English League to ensure that Israeli viewers get to watch Revivo
(Fenerbahce), Bachar and Benayoun (both Racing Santander), Tal (Rayo Vallecano)
and Berkovic (Manchester City). It often means that schedules are changed at
the last minute to screen Manchester City games over my beloved Manchester
United. A potential clash of scheduling with Fenerbahce has been averted for
this season as they got knocked out of this year’s Champions League and at
least I know that the United versus Maccabi Haifa games will be shown!
In terms of football on the international
level, Israel has played in one World Cup - Mexico 1970. Qualifying campaigns
tend to end in heartache. The matches determining who would be at the 2000
European Championships involved some wonderful nights in both the national
stadium – knocking in a total of 15 goals in three consecutive home games
against Cyprus, San Marino and Austria – and in Rabin Square in Tel-Aviv. The
Tel-Aviv municipality erected a huge screen in the public square and thousands
arrived to cheer on the national team (Myself and another from England seemed
to be the only two people that had turned up with a few cans of beer – old
habits die hard!). In the end, it was Denmark that dashed our dreams when they
came to Tel-Aviv for a place in the finals at stake. It was a 5-0 drubbing with
a certain Haim Revivo shown the red card.
I experienced utter despair again when
watching Austria knock out Israel in qualifying for the last World Cup in Japan
and Korea. Israel needed a win at home for the right to play Turkey in a
play-off for a place in the finals. In what was to be the last kick of the game
in Tel-Aviv, Austria equalized to send Israel packing for another 4 years. I
had never before and probably never will again experience such an oppressive
silence in a football ground as the one that occurred when that free-kick went
in.
What next for Israeli Football? We’ve
seen the league season delayed over television rights to screen games, the
national manager quit, an unsavoury incident involving the Under-21 National
squad and some prostitues, Haim Revivo retiring from International football -
only to return 5 months later, the Israeli agent Pini Zahavi brokering the 30
million pound deal to bring Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United, allegations of
match-fixing in the domestic league and Betar Yerushalayim narrowly avoiding
relegation and bankruptcy. Next you’ll tell me that Maccabi Haifa will play
Manchester United in the Champions League and President Katsav will support
Giovanni Rosso’s bid to become an Israeli citizen so that he can play for the
national team! In Israeli soccer, anything can happen…. And it often does!
