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Opening kick: The chairman of the league's manager opens the season and the heart

Executive summary with Erez Kalfon, especially for the start of the season: the transformation of football from a male to a family experience, the intention to establish a venture capital fund for investment in sports tech, the desire to place bets online to prevent a loss of three billion shekels.

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• Erez Kalfon

• Liat Ron

• Super League

• League Director

Liat Ron

Wednesday, 25 August 2021, 15:34 Updated: Thursday, 26 August 2021, 17:07

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: Erez Kalfon, 50, Chairman of the EPA and Chairman of the Football Leagues Administration

Who I am

: It is important for me to make the right decisions, make sure they are implemented and monitor them. Make a decision and immediately set off.

Roots

: Mother's family In medicine in Iraq. They immigrated in the 1950s, came to a transit camp near Bnei Brak, from there they moved to agency houses in the city and then to Raj. Grandma was a midwife and grandfather worked at an institution.

The parents met in the city before the army, got married and settled in Ramat Gan. Dad set up a construction company with his brother, Mom worked for a while in the aerospace industry and then focused on raising the three of us.

My childhood

: Raj, Jordan Street. We spent a lot of time in the park, we played football and basketball and I was even a short time at Hapoel and Hakach Raj. I studied accounting at ORT, which was the closest high school and my head was not in school.

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"We were in the park a lot, we played football and basketball and I was even a short time at Hapoel and Hakach Raj" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Ruby Castro)

"I was asked to join Ariel Sharon's team"

Security

: After graduating from the CPS service at the Hashomer Farm recruiting base, where I trained "Rapul Boys", I started working in the field as a security guard, I was a security supervisor at Ichilov, security director of schools and CEO of a security company while studying for a bachelor's degree in social sciences and communications At Bar Ilan.

The security company provided security services, CA and computer to the Likud, I knew some of the senior people there and they asked me to join the team of Ariel Sharon, as a consultant to local authorities, responsible for tours and visits in Israel and abroad, coordination with the GSS and other things.

Ariel Sharon

: An amazing man, a man of action, knew the country to its core and knew what he wanted to do. I learned a lot from him. He had an extraordinary sense of humor. At his first hospitalization, he was in a hospital in Jerusalem. Information because of medical confidentiality.

While he was receiving treatment and was connected to infusions, we told him, Eric, the newspapers are eulogizing you and it will affect the capital market and cause a collapse.

He asked for the phone, passed a reporter, and said, "Hello, I'm talking to you underground, but everything's fine, no need to sell shares, I'm already out."

"We told him, Eric, the newspapers are eulogizing you and it will affect the capital market and cause a collapse. He asked for the phone" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Robbie Castro)

"I never had political ambitions"

Public career

: I was with Sharon for almost six years, also in the Prime Minister's Office, I continued with Ehud Olmert who replaced him as Prime Minister after he was hospitalized for the second time and then I was appointed director general of the Ministry of Absorption and I was under three ministers. I never had political ambitions. I like to concern himself with professionals. from there I went to the organization "Nefesh", raising immigrants from north America to Israel.

Head of the Finance Minister

Moshe Kahlon, who was finance minister and stood before passing the budget, asked me to serve as chairman of its headquarters. This was the last biennial budget that passed until this moment and this year I worked from morning to night, a turbulent period of signing the wage agreements in the Histadrut and the great crisis in the Jerusalem municipality. Then I was appointed Chairman of EPA and Chairman of Dorad.

EPA

: A government infrastructure company engaged in the unloading, loading, storage and transportation of fuels, and is responsible for the crude oil transmission pipeline from the port of Eilat to Ashkelon and from there to the refineries,Which is considered a strategic facility.

In addition, the company deals with natural gas and LPG, cooking gas. All gas that arrives in Israel is dismantled in the EPA.

Over 50% of its operations are conducted with international clients.

The appointment was by no means political.

I competed with other candidates and passed the committee.

"Moshe Kahlon, who was finance minister and was about to transfer a budget, asked me to come and serve as chairman of his staff" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Ruby Castro)

"The potential for peace with Saudi Arabia is enormous"

Agreement with the Emirates

: Signed a year ago and despite what is written, not frozen. This agreement is of strategic, political, security and economic importance, it breaks the Arab boycott and gives Israel energetic security. If a peace agreement is signed with Saudi Arabia in the future, it could expand and its potential is enormous.

Preserving the environment

: I can reassure the environmental organizations that are concerned about EPA activities, that we will not spare resources to protect it at all costs and at the same time maintain the fitness of the oil port in Eilat, routines and security and emergency events. .

Dorad

: the company's largest private power production in Israel. I served as its chairman until last year. During my time, we signed the gas supply agreement with Energian, which owns shark and crocodile reservoirs, at prices 30% lower than market prices, which increased competition with natural gas and lowered the price for consumers.

"This agreement is of strategic, political, security and economic importance, it breaks the Arab boycott and gives Israel energy security" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Ruby Castro)

"Football without an audience is not football"

Director of the Football Leagues

: The body that coordinates the activities of the two professional leagues in Israel, the Premier League and the National League and is celebrating seven years since its establishment this month. In 2018, when some team owners approached me to take on the role of principal, I did not know why I was entering, but I saw it as a Zionist step, and I wanted to harness my abilities for the sport, in parallel with my work in the EPA.

Corona

: We went through a difficult year and a half of engaging in Corona and less in football. We prevented a heavy economic and sporting disaster for the teams, when we managed to finish the previous two seasons in full. The football industry generates about NIS 600 million a year and supports tens of thousands of families, from club employees to sausage sellers in stadiums, so the responsibility for us is enormous.

Outline for the opening of the season

: The football stadium is the safest place for those who enter its gates, because the spectators are in the open air, they have a green mark or those who have undergone rapid corona tests. How did the Euro final become a mass contagion event? I'm not responsible for them. For us, this would not happen, because we follow the green mark, adhere to procedures and maintain a sterile environment with the help of inspectors.

I trust the fans to keep the guidelines, because they know full well that if that does not happen, the Ministry of Health will not allow us to hold the games. We are determined to end the season on the pitches, because football without an audience is not football. By the way, in most European countries you play with an audience, although not everyone has had a second vaccine, so here we are all at once.

New audiences

: The principal is responsible for the viewing experience and I want to make watching a football game a family experience.

All the stadiums are modern, accessible to families, and children and before the Corona a million and a half people came to them.

We work with groups to eradicate violence and racism.

They will prepare lists of unscrupulous fans, who will receive a text message not to come to the games and if they are smart and try to enter anyway, will be identified by the representatives of the teams that will stand in the goals in the away games, and will be removed by the security guards.

Everyone knows there that if this does not happen, there will be no livelihood because families will find another pastime.

This move will be completed by administrative fines, once the budget passes.

Anyone who throws objects, swears or uses violence will return home with a report.

"Whoever throws objects, curses or uses violence, will return home with a report" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Ruby Castro)

"On the way to establishing a venture capital fund owned by the groups"

Reducing losses

: As part of the policing reform, the state has taken on security costs on the plots and reduced this large expenditure from the groups, and rightly so. Group owners in Israel lose money and everything possible must be done to make it easier for them.

I hope we can promote recognition of the investment in sport for tax purposes and that way we can attract more investors from overseas. An additional measure is advancing the game so that children can reach.

We are trying to instill in groups of professional standards to be managed as corporations, thus preventing more crashes. I want to we have ten more like Alona Barkat, Jacob Shachar and Mitch Godlhar and I understand it is difficult when big spending much revenue and motivation is not a business but a Zionist.

gambling Online

: Three billion shekels a year go to the illegal "live bets", instead of entering groups through the toto, of course under strict regulation. We made an effort to convince the Treasury and the Ministry of Sports to put it in the current budget and unfortunately we were not able to. But we do not give up and hope to pass this important decision in a separate reform.

Changing the structure of the leagues

: the number of teams needs to be reduced, in order to rise in level and make them more economical. There is a possibility of mergers between teams and the opening of a third league, to which the less good teams will drain, and when the epidemic is over we will set off.

Venture capital fund

: We are on the way to establishing a venture capital fund owned by the teams in the administration together with external partners, whose goal is to invest in start-ups that will engage in sports technologies. We are already sitting with companies that are engaged, among other things, in improving the communication network in the fields and technology related to the ball itself. There is no reason why Israel should not be a world football power in this field.

VAR

: We were among the first countries to put the video judging system on the pitches and I pushed that decision with all my might because I thought the better team should win.

At first there were problems with its implementation and the judges took time to get used to it, but in retrospect it was a very successful move.

Sapir Berman

: I am in favor of diversity and the bride and it was a pleasure to see the warm welcome she received.

It is also important for me to bring in teams from the Arab sector, because I think that football is a coexistence, which is also reflected in our principal meetings.

"The number of teams needs to be reduced, in order to rise in level and make them more economical" (Photo: Reuven Castro, Ruby Castro)

"When I'm exhausting something, I move on"

Anat

: My wife, human resources manager.

We met in the army at Hashomer Farm, when she was a teaching officer and I was a platoon sergeant. We have two children and we live in Kiryat Ono.

Leisure

: Do not start the day without running outside and abdominal exercises. The

future

: Our most important task is The lawn in the season that will open this week alongside the Corona, as we have done for the past two years. My term in the EPA ends in 2022 and when I exhaust something I move on.

The same will be true of the principal.

The interview will also be published in the "Maariv-Business" supplement on Friday, August 27, 21

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