Professional control required: Do not throw too much away from the team achievement

An extraordinary yearbook does not herald the coming of spring.

The Football Association talks about a reserve league and investing in excellence, but nothing can exist without control over the management of the youth departments in the teams

Ophir Saar

03/07/2022

Sunday, 03 July 2022, 08:00

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Summary: The Israel - England youth team 3: 1 (Sports 1)

The youth team had amazing months, from the qualifying round, through the early round of the Euros to the sensational semi-final and the final that almost ended in a historic title.

It was a lust for the eyes, but from here to the enthusiasm, optimism and credit that all sorts of factors attribute to themselves for the beginning of a revolution in Israeli football, the distance is great.

This is a super-talented yearbook that Ofir Haim has managed to put together professionally and mentally perfectly, and yet it is far from serving as a mirror for the future of Israeli football.

Oren Hasson talks about the plans that are currently being evaporated, about finding solutions for the young players who will not be lost (always "sitting on the plans" when you understand that Otto will be asked questions on the subject), talking about the reserve league, continuing to involve young people up to 23 in the national league and more.

More on Walla!

Ofir Haim Tears: "I play her 'voice', but inside completely"

To the full article

It was a huge achievement, but let's not throw it away because there are a lot of things to fix.

Oscar Gluch after the goal he scored in the final (Photo: GettyImages, VLADIMIR SIMICEK)

Let's start with the reserve league, which has been tried before.

To set it up it needs to be under real control, where groups will not be able to do what they want.

The games will be at least at the Toto Cup level with referees, linemen and an adequate number of players, and not the market that characterized the previous league, where teams did not arrive or were late for games, some came with second or senior boys players and some even canceled games.

Last time it fell on control and so will this time.

The only control the Football Association has today is the budget one with Sigalit Sage, and we all know what it looks like.

What reason is there to believe that things will look different?

It does not end there, but continues to the clubs themselves.

All clubs are registered and play under the Football Association, but there is no requirement for a professional manager in each department, assistant and coach in each yearbook who did a coaches course and not instructors, minimum wage for each of the two and other basic things, which must be in the department to work at a proper basic professional level.

Need a real plan, not passwords.

Oren Hasson (Photo: Official website, The Football Association)

The biggest failure of football here is the youth departments.

There are some teams that do it right - Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Petah Tikva for example - but there are 30 clubs in Israel that are defined as professionals.

How can it be that the two professional leagues have no threshold requirements?

There will be those who do not like to work and will say that it costs a lot of money and groups will not stand it.

Meeting the threshold requirements will cost the club around NIS 1 million a year.

It should be remembered that there is also revenue in the youth department that balances this, mainly from football schools.

The club will lose several hundred thousand shekels, but on the other hand receives allowances from broadcasting rights, tutu and administration, and more than that - when done right the community also connects, recruits more sponsors and local people who care, sometimes also from the town or local council.

So true, there are groups that it will greatly impair their ability to put up a quality staff in the alumni.

If it means that a lot of teams in the national team, and maybe even a few in the Premier League, will fill the team with quite a few players on a soldier's salary, you can live with that.

At first it will be so, but over the years these development leagues will make a leap and the teams will benefit from improving and selling players, and of course from their professional ability.

This will create a lot more money for Israeli football, will improve the quality of the average Israeli player, and most importantly - local players always produce a different identity in clubs.

The connection will be strengthened and fans will return to the pitches not only in the 3-4 top teams.

Another claim of relatively small clubs is that players can move freely until the age of 15 and today the senior teams kidnap them.

This matter can be divided into two.

First, it is the association that needs solutions to these things, also at the level of agreement between the clubs themselves and for Israeli football.

Teams will be able to earn something from the passes, so there will be a drive for the little ones to invest in players who will be sold in the future.

In the second aspect, even if a star or two stand out in a particular yearbook run away, more players are always growing, and at the same time, as the seniors absorb non-stop, they also emit a lot of talented players who move to the smaller clubs and do not give up.

Noble Omar and Eli Dassah were expelled from Maccabi Tel Aviv at a young age - one went to Rishon Lezion, the other to Betar, and what happened in the end? Maccabi Tel Aviv paid a lot of money to return them.

Released at a young age - and returned for a lot of money.

Noble in Maccabi Tel Aviv (Photo: Danny Maron)

With all due respect to the youth team and the achievement, it is clear where it comes from.

It is enough to see the squad, which is mostly players from Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Petah Tikva.

How many players from Hadera did you see there?

How many from Betar Jerusalem, Bnei Yehuda or Hapoel Haifa

? And a desire to change and do really big things. In the first stage, management control must be created at the level of the youth departments in the professional groups, with controllers who will move between clubs, check that things are being done, ask questions, and when necessary give fines and prosecute those who do not meet the requirements. In any body, especially when the youth departments are the most important thing for the future of Israeli football, much more than an excellence project or any investment in the national team itself.

This is not a choice, the future of Israeli football and the fan will really rise or fall.

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• Israeli soccer

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• Israel national football team