The Assassination Attempt ("Before I Distribute Gift to Families - And Suddenly Shoot the House") • Return to the Premier League ("Sorry I Didn't Take a Comet at First") • And the Next Season in the Shadow of the Corona ("Without Support, Teams Will Not Open It") • Muhammad Abu Yunis, Chairman Bnei Sakhnin concludes the crazy year of his life

• Muhammad Abu Yunis. Crazy season

  Photo: 

  Eran Luff

A quick glance at Muhammad Abu Yunis betrays the fact that he was very happy about the rise of the Sakhnin boys to the Premier League. However, his restraint cannot be missed either.

It was the most complex year of the group's chairman's life. At the end of last season, Bnei Sakhnin dropped to the National League, and at the beginning of the current season, it dropped to 12th in the table. Shortly thereafter, the climax reached, when two unknowns arrived at his home.

Three coaches replaced Abu Yunis this season, the roster of players also changed on the move, and in between he tried to keep his business alive following the Corona crisis. "I had mixed feelings after we went to the league. On the one hand, I was happy, and on the other, it hurt all the upheavals we went through this season," he says in an interview with Israel Today.

Benny Sakhnin celebrates an increase in Teddy. "In soccer you are happy every day" // Photo: Bernie Ardov

"This year I suffered a lot from financial problems, things that were in the locker room, the coaches' exchange, the fall we had. We were closer to losing a league than going up. At the end of the game, everything was over. We had an easy season. We are happy, but with football you are happy every day - and already Starting to prepare for next season. "

There wasn't a moment during the season when you said "Why do I need this?"

"On the contrary, what I have been through has made me stronger. I am not broke, believe in my path and right. I have been a businessman for 40 years and have known people all over the country. I have never quarreled with anyone and have no enemies. What happened here is my point. I also know why Who the people are and what they mean. But I think this story is behind me. "

Abu Yunis talks about two shooting events at his home during the season. The last time was a little over a month ago. Unknown persons came outside his house in Sakhnin, got out of a vehicle and fired several bullets, apparently to hurt him and his family. He now refers for the first time to an event that changed his life: "It was not far from disaster. I was shot twice in one month and another during Ramadan. Here in Ramadan we symbolize the good deeds, the compassion, the mutual love. People have taken it elsewhere.

"A few days before the event, I gave a gift to families in Sakhnin - and suddenly they were shooting at my house. It all happened when I owe nothing to anyone. In the second shooting, my son was not far from getting a bullet in his head. He was up, got up in the morning to eat something. First from home and was not far from absorbing the ball.

"And all about what? About blackmailing people. No one will blackmail me. I'm sure God has kept us, because I only think about how to support my family and my employees and do good to other people."

"The decline has done us good"

After such a story the transition to a sharp football, but one that symbolizes the human Abu Yunis. After the immigration game against Hapoel Katamon in Jerusalem, he arrived in Sakhnin in the wee hours of the night. In the morning, he had already returned to the glass factory he owned, and then received a call urgently asking him to attend the Football Association meeting on the subject of burning issues.

Eldad comets into the air. "I can only regret not taking him since the beginning of the season" // Photo by Bernie Ardov

All these things make up Abu Yunis, or "Abu Bhagat" as he is called by his relatives. So why he stays in football, after all, is probably too complex a question. But Abu Younes tries to explain: "Soccer has made Sakhnin an economic power in the Arab sector. Shfaram is a bigger city, greater Baqa al-Gharbiya, so is Umm al-Fahm, but following football, Sakhnin is given a special status. Umm al-Fahm, the connotation was negative, but since they made it to the National League - they talk differently.

"They were talking about Umm al-Fahm only in the context of gunfire and crime. Now people who put football on the map have come up and are talking about it in a positive way. It's an example. Now see what happens around Sakhnin."

On the other hand, you could go down to League A. After all, you were in 12th place after three coaches were replaced. You replaced big names on paper with young players, some anonymous. How did all this connect to a league rise?

"In January we took a League A player coming from Tamra and one journalist asked me: 'A team that wants to go to the Premier League bring a League A player?' I replied: 'The big names have brought us to the National League and there are stars in the sky only.' We need young players who want to prove, along with some veteran players who will lead it all.

Sakhnin celebrating in Jerusalem. Returning after a year // Photo: Bernie Ardov 

"The drop in the league has done us some good things. Bhajat Bashir, Ali Abu Raya, Maron Gentos, Hassan Hilo - all of these might not have left us in the Premier League a year ago, but they are the ones who brought us back there and are a good foundation for next season."

Did you believe that coach Eldad Shavit would cost you a league?

"I can only regret not taking him from the beginning of the season, we would go up. But better late than never. I never had an argument with him. He connected very quickly to the players, and they brought him back love and played for him. The results speak for themselves."

You haven't said yet if he goes on with you to the top league.

"Because we haven't talked about next season yet. There's a good chance he'll continue with us."

How will you survive in the Premier League on a budget basis? There is currently no expected revenue from the audience, where will the money come from?

"The first year will be very difficult. If there is no outside support - many teams will not be able to open the season, including the people of Sakhnin. Business owners bring money from their businesses, but their businesses are also damaged. We hope the leagues administration will succeed in bringing money from the state as compensation for loss of revenue. Of the teams, otherwise no club will be able to open the season. "