Erez Kalfon: "We saved the football industry" Israel today

The chairman of the leagues administration sums up a stormy week in an interview with "Israel Today": "We did not want to decide the league on the table" • On the return of the crowd: "Hope in March" and on the future: "There is no doubt that the number of teams in the league

• Kalfon.

  For online gambling

  Photography: 

  Oren Ben Hakon

The strongest man in Israeli football today is without a doubt Erez Kalfon.

In the last year he found himself chairman of the Directorate of football leagues in the ongoing struggle to keep the industry alive and breathing, so every time the government closed it because of its origin. There were quite a few difficulties and pressures, but in the end he won - all struggles.    

"I'm very happy That football will return this weekend, and I will do everything I can so that the league will not be stopped again, because the league has no capacity to contain another game break, "Kalfon said in an interview with Israel Today, updating:" I will continue in the coming days to make every effort At the end of the closure.

We prevented a sporting and economic disaster for the football teams. "Is

n't it a bit excessive to say that a disaster was prevented?

"Absolutely not. I know the financial reports of each team, and I did not just say that if the government had not made the right decision to renew the leagues, we would have reached this dire situation.

If football hadn’t come back, we just wouldn’t have had the ability to stroke games and sharp and some would not have been able to complete the league. 

Bloomfield is empty.

When will fans come in?

// Photo: Oded Karni

"We had to turn the world upside down to get back to playing. Not everyone understands the meaning of playing around the world as usual so you can't play in June, not everyone understood what it means to stop playing - foreigners who want to leave, salaries to keep paying, these are things the Ministry of Health and government do not We understand. "

How worried were you that you would have to announce the end of the league?

"If you make the league unsportsmanlike and take a round in the playoffs, you decide Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa on the green table and not on the pitch, and we did not want that to happen.

The second option was to announce the cancellation of the season and this has major implications because we would endanger teams by perhaps preventing them from participating in the European factories.

"To my delight, Professor Itamar Grotto approved the recommendation of the Ministry of Health and the government made the right decision."   

"I have a very big responsibility"

This was the third time the league stopped after stopping last season with the start of the Corona and last September. 

"The hardest task was to renew the games last season, because the Corona epidemic had just started and the solution of home isolation is what made it possible for the league to return," says Kalfon. "This fight was more critical, because if we had not returned this weekend, the league would not return. "And we would fall into an economic and sporting abyss. I have a big responsibility on my shoulders. To the players, to the owners of the teams, but above all to the 7,000 families who make a living from the industry. If football had not been renewed last season and was not renewed now, I do not know what would have happened to them."

Do you see the crowd returning to the pitches already during the current season?

"I really hope so. Now we want to vaccinate all the players, staff, administration, etc., it's 1,500 people. We are working with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Sports so that fans can return to the pitches with the green passport in early March. I want to be optimistic around "March, and of course if there is no increase in morbidity and all kinds of mutations, we will start to see the buds of the fans on the pitches. We will run everything as pilots with checks of passports and everything we need, with the goal being that next season we can start the season as usual with fans."

How hard is it to combine football with your position in the EPA?

"The position of chairman of the administration takes a lot of time from me. When I entered the position I did not know that the corona would come and make me work until the wee hours of the night and that I would have to study epidemiology. "I go with great satisfaction, because we saved the football industry."

"Dealing with violence on the pitches

with

fines"

With all due respect to the struggles for the return of the games, Kalfon wants to leave a mark on Israeli football.

He is in charge of the policing reform on the pitches, which saved the teams hundreds and millions of shekels a year, made sure that the teams receive the safety net for 75 million shekels, was the first to sign a historic agreement with the UAE administration, .  

"We have done a lot of projects, but unfortunately there are two reforms that we have not done yet because the Corona has stopped us," says Kalfon. "I mean changing the structure of the leagues, it would have been done without the Corona, and there is no doubt that the number of teams should be reduced. On pitches through fines.If fans who come to riot, hurt other fans and the game experience go home with a cops report, it will significantly reduce the violence.

"These are critical issues that I hope we will address after the Corona, because it is very important for the future of football."

Ben suit with celebrates.

"We do not want groups to be harmed" // Photo: Betar Jerusalem

These two projects are not the only ones the chairman of the administration is interested in promoting.

In June, we unveiled talks with the Ministry of Finance regarding the establishment of an online gambling system, which will bring in large sums of money for groups, and there was even an attempt for this procedure to be part of the economic safety net for groups, but in the meantime the issue is stuck again.

"Every year there is NIS 3 billion invested in illegal gambling," says Kalfon. "We held several discussions on the subject with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports, and I hope that after the election we will be able to promote online gambling in Israel as well."

Are you afraid of the Betar Jerusalem deal and Sheikh Hemed Ben Khalifa?

"We do not want groups to be harmed, but on the other hand we want to congratulate and bring in more people to help hold the groups together.

I trust the Committee on the Transfer of Rights, which makes every possible examination.

It is not fair that I should intervene, I can allow the committee to end and then I will fully answer the whole issue. "