"The judges acted like a gardener" • Ronit Tirosh, the first woman to serve as chairman of the Football Judges Association, provides insights after almost a year in office and brings back memories

• "In my opinion, transparency, reliability and uniformity are important." Tiroche // Photo: Tzachi Miriam

When Ronit Tiroche sat on the chair of the Jury, ten months ago, she was amazed at how miserable the relationship between the judges was.

"Competitiveness is an integral part of the union structure. The better a judge and the higher the scores, the more he will be embedded into more games, and the more prestigious games. For every mistake, the scoring goes down. At that time, the VAR (video judgment) was not yet used, and in all Once there was a judgmental error, judges who watched the game on TV would be reluctant to broadcast or comment in real time, so they would go down on the referee on broadcast.

"I heard about it from Premier League judges and decided to take the people to the polygraph. Not only the judges, but also the union's management team, to deal with gossip and leaks. We all know who's court papers and which judge is close to some journalist, who then 'keeps' him and avoids it Visiting him when he's wrong.

"It's not a pleasant topic to talk about, but I stood in front of it and faced it. It was important to talk about it openly, to make it clear to them how important my transparency, reliability and uniformity is."

What did the polygraph bring up?

"I will not go into the test results, because it is not 100 percent reliable. But it was important for me to reflect on what they looked like. They acted like a gardener."

And has their behavior changed?

"I think so. I think the atmosphere is better and more open, that the judges feel they have an open door and an attentive ear, and I think they are calmer. Today there is no camping on the surface anymore. I mean, I'm sure she exists, but she doesn't manage things anymore.

"Contrary to the image we all know about footballers in Israel, the referees are young, intelligent and educated guys. I would love to spend them on three days of drafting, some rapping or something, but there is no time. Everyone is busy with their jobs midweek, and on the weekends they are on the field."

Tiroche (66) is the first woman in Israel to head the judiciary. She has met the sporting world several times before; in 2001, Minister Limor Livnat was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport; during her seven years as a Knesset Member, between 2006 and 2013, she headed the sports lobby.

About four years ago, she was appointed a management company in the union. Former chairperson, Uzi Yitzhaki, knew her from the days when he ran the Ministry of Transport and she ran the Ministry of Education, and suggested that she join the union as a management company.

"I would occasionally come up for discussions and voting, but not really involved," she says. "When Yitzhaki left a year and a half ago, he asked me to

Replace it. I agreed, and then they decided to give the job to Moshe Karadi, the former police commissioner. It was insulting. "
Cardi served only two months, up to eight as CEO of Delek. The position was again offered for resignation, and this time she refused.

"They started pushing me to take it, claiming it was a male stronghold that must be conquered. I couldn't remain indifferent, because if there is a glass ceiling somewhere, I believe it should be broken.

"The children also pushed me to accept the position. My son always said that in all my years in the Knesset I was off, and now the light will come back to my eyes, as it was when I was in the Ministry of Education. He was right."

Along with Tirosh, the CEO is Yariv Tepper, and together they are president and prime minister. She is unanimously elected by the Executive Committee, convenes the Executive and presides over the meetings; He is responsible for professional, economic and administrative issues. is very.

She plays the role of volunteering, in addition to her work as a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. "But the union's activities cost me money, because I took other jobs off myself and reduced my interdisciplinary courses.

"The worst thing is that I have to give up my regular time with the granddaughters. When they introduced me, they said it was a one-hour job a week, and I found myself working two or three days a week, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., today it already requires me Less time, but it's constantly in the background. "

With Saul Mofaz. "Blue and white is a very similar platform to Kadima, and I wish you didn't fall apart"

Are you going to games?

"In the past, I used to go to Bnei Yehuda games when she was still in the Hope neighborhood. Today I don't. I don't see myself going to all the games of all teams, and I don't want to go to a single-team game, and then they say, 'She's going to see this team. And you're not going to see that group. '

"On Saturdays I watch TV on the phone and next to the phone. After the games, there are groups who write to me and complain, and I come back to them. If I attack a judge, I call to encourage him, even if he did nonsense. I know to give a head and criticize when needed, but you also have to give a word Good and reassuring. In the past I have been to all kinds of wetsap groups of judges and union members, but over time I left almost all of them. "

How's your feeling as a woman in a male-dominated environment?

"I suppose eyebrows were raised at the beginning. That's the feeling I had at the first conference with the judges, but I feel confident, that gives me respect. The only question I hear is 'What brought you here?' I don't think a man would ask such a question. "

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to place a professional or a professional at the head of the system, who came from the jurisdiction? Or at least out of football?

"I think there is no such thing as 'right' or 'wrong', it depends on the person himself. I was in Amsterdam meeting with UEFA representatives, and they were surprised by the knowledge I demonstrated and the questions I asked, as well as the fact that I was not satisfied with some of the answers they gave me."

for example?

"The VAR could be involved in a red card offense, because it's a game-changing move, but when I asked why not in the case of a yellow card, or at least a second yellow, they answered that they had no answer."

Discourse around Israeli football jurisdiction has changed over the past year, since the VAR (or "screen judgment," as you would expect it to be called) to the Premier League. The reasonable assumption was that looking at cameras from different angles would reduce the number of errors of judgment, and at the same time the complaints of the teams against the judges. It did not happen.

Just this week, in the main game where Hapoel overcame Hapoel Haifa 0: 1, referee Yigal Fried Pendel won the winning team, even though the VAR judge warned him that he was wrong. "If we didn't win, we would only talk about it." , Acknowledged at the conclusion of coach Yossi Aboxis.

Some team leaders demand the use of cameras in Israeli football. Hapoel Ra'anana owners, Asher Alon, were furious at the VAR after a legal gate occupied by his group against Scacia Ness Ziona was disqualified on the grounds that there was no camera aimed at the right angle. "The VAR's intervention is always to our detriment," Alon said. "This tool does not promote football, but vice versa."

Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Laden Ibich attacked the system operators at the end of a game against Maccabi Netanya, where his team was disqualified for four goals. The owner of the Kiryat Shmona Municipality, Izzy Sharetzky, said of Judge Eli Hachmon, after a dramatic loss to Bnei Yehuda earlier this season: “Everyone said he played Winner, and I have no proof. This judge is destroying us, he didn't know football and wouldn't know. Until we were absorbed, he would not whistle. He has no idea. "Shertzki was fined NIS 10,000.

Europe has also been criticized for the electronic system. English past footballer Gary Lineker tweeted a few weeks ago, in a moment in the Premier League controversy: "I had to throw up. If the VAR was a coach, he would be fired after two weeks."

Tiroche makes it clear that the VAR will not be canceled in Israel. "It's part of the advance, and we won't go back, even if there are claims. In the end, screen judgment prevents critical mistakes and allows to achieve a result that better reflects the game. We are still young in the field, and the learning process is not yet complete. Think that this will only start in the playoffs of Last season, so we haven't completed one full season yet, but feel the progress in the data. "

"There is the common practice in England, where the VAR exists but hardly refers to it, and there is the Bundesliga, which goes a hundred times to the VAR, which can take seven minutes. We try to find our way in the middle, in between.

"We set a target to reduce the number of errors and downplay the screen. For me, it is important that the gross game time is not too long and that there are no delays. Last season, when there was no VAR, there were 22 errors not fixed. This year, until the 12th cycle, 40 errors were recorded And 27 of them were repaired. "

This is a huge increase in the number of errors of judgment.

"Thanks to the screen judgment, we came up with 40" critical "errors. It's not that last year there were only 22 errors, but that 22 were identified under the conditions that existed then."

Isn't it absurd to you that owners and coaches complain, not in the most civilized way, against the computerized system?

"In my impression, there is actually less enthusiasm for the judges. We encounter less and less crowd of players around the referee to put pressure on him, and I attribute that to the screen's judgment. They know that seeing everything. But it was clear to me beforehand that it would not bring us to Zero mistakes, computer is sometimes wrong too.

Limor Livnat. "Seeing me a traitor" // Photo: Alan Shiber

"Joining the judges is very disturbing to me. I don't often go to the Football Association board meetings, but at the beginning of the season I demanded that they be penalized against any team that discredits the referees. They would usually be fined in the court for NIS 1,000 or NIS 5,000, and I demanded that the amount Will cost 50,000. "

And what was the reaction?

"Attorney Moran Meiri, who represents Maccabi Tel Aviv, objected and said that fairies cannot be curtailed, and that this is freedom of speech. But I come from the education system, and there will be no such situation. I will not allow the judges' blood. When he said who said in Ashdod Judge "If we go down a league, it will be registered on your name" (owner Jackie Ben old to Ural Greenfeld, last season. He was fined NIS 3,500; AU), the same judge needed a police force to accompany him out of the stadium.

"The team owners are supposed to be a model, they must not legitimize beating the judges, and that I will not give up. In the end raised the bar, set the fine for NIS 30,000. This is not to my complete satisfaction."

Although her term has not yet reached the third level, Tirosh is not afraid to enter into conflicts. Soccer team owners have already been prosecuted 20 times for referees' attacks during and after games. The Kiryat Shmona municipal boycott last month of a rallying of club leaders and the judges' union because of an allegation of constant deprivation. The league manager criticized the referees' association for delaying the opening game of the season between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa because of confetti dumping from the stands. Heredity replied sarcastically: "Now I will equip the judges with Dyson."

One of the main arguments is that not all plots have sufficient VAR conditions. For example, the shooting angle in Kiryat Shmona does not provide better conditions than the referee's eyes on the court, and in games considered marginal and junior, there are not enough cameras.
"It is impossible to do where and where. We exercise screen jurisdiction in all the league's pitches. We have undergone a UEFA licensing process, and we send clips from every game. I'm not proficient in the technical aspects.

"Kiryat Shmona has many arguments, some justified, as happened in the first cycle, when Eli Hakmon unjustly removed a player, and then suspended. I understood the pain of Sharetsky, he was right, and I hurt his pain. But I gave no backing to his conduct and his playing in the referee. I offered him back from his remarks, and when he refused - I demanded that he be summoned to the disciplinary court. I think he enjoyed coming there and making his claims against us. "

Beyond the teams' allegations of mistakes and discrimination, there is one argument that is made against the VAR by football lovers: that it caused the loss of romance in the game.

"There is something about it. Every technological dimension that comes into our lives turns us into something more robotic. One of the highlights of a football game is the excitement and human outburst after a gate, but when you flag the screen and the enthusiasm goes down, you jump after it and restore the thrill. Less curses. "

What is the overall score you would give to the Israeli soccer referees?

"I'm happy with the level. Obviously there is nowhere to go, but we are making steady progress. Last Friday we had a winter conference, and I complimented him very much on the referees. I noted that we came after a great series of cycles in the league, I talked about how the VAR works properly, which shortened the time That it is necessary for every examination, that the judges correct errors, that they cooperate and that they help one another.

"Of course, the next day, on Saturday, we were hit on the head. I opened here, and we went through a very difficult cycle, with quite a few mistakes. All this week I turned around with a grief.

"In one of the games lately there was such a clear offense that I don't understand what the referee thought when he didn't. I know him, and I know it's unintentional and ego-free. I waited a few days with the phone call to him so everything would calm down, but I intend to talk to him about it".

What do you think is the biggest problem facing the judges in the country?

"Ego, no doubt. The more they keep the ego at home and manage to be relevant and not make calculations that 'I should the other judge's score go down,' the higher the quality."

As a Knesset Member. "I have always felt a professional and non-political person" // Photo: Dudi Waknin

In Israel there are close to 1,000 judges and online, but the industry is far from being a professional, unlike the leading European countries, because their wages do not hold office. In the Premier League game management, a referee receives NIS 2,950, and online - 1,475. In youth and women's games, this is a meager salary of only NIS 200.

"There is a huge pit in the judges' reserve," says Tirosh. "We still don't feel the lack, but recruitment is low. Basically, the threshold age for a judge is 17, and there is a high dropout when they enlist in the IDF. After release, they simply do not return to the industry.

"Thanks to my early acquaintance with the Department of Education, we launched together a project that will recognize games for high school students as volunteering in the community for adulthood. High school students will undergo a 40-hour football judging course, under the direction of past referee Elon Yefet. We started a pilot course last year and more in Netanya. , Including Sakhnin and Bedouin communities in the north. After the course, they will run community games and then join our roster.

"The judges also have a problem: there are only about 30 judges. My goal is to at least double that number until I finish my job in about two years. It's a very masculine environment, and women have fewer elbows, but I want to put the judges on the map, and we have a judge. And two Kevunim in international games. "

Tirosh proudly says that in a conversation with UEFA representatives in Amsterdam she raised the issue of Israeli judges in Europe. "I understand that Israel is a small country and not the most successful in football, but I told them that there is no reason why Israeli judges will not be in the world top.

"I was gently told that there are quips, quotas, reserved for large countries. For example, Germany is getting a lot of places. We soon learned that Greenfeld was accepted to rank A, the top 25 judges on the continent, and is expected to judge in the summer in euros. It's a historic achievement, it's at the top of the top. Ural has already judged this season in the Real Madrid Champions League game and ran the season game in the Greek league.

"In those ranks, a judge has to be a professional. It can't be a second job, and Ural has really given up on another job to make that move. Maybe the union can arrange for him to be the presenter of some company or another. I hope he paves the way for others, too.

"I can pretend to bring more judges to Europe, but understand the quatra issue. We have no standard for more than one judge. That's a nice achievement, too."

Tirosh's initial connection to sports was as a middle school student Moshe Hess in Tel Aviv, when she played basketball for the girls' team. Then she played Iron City T. "We were sent to practice on the Maccabi Tel Aviv fields, and there I learned from Matt Brody the job he used to do. To this day, I know how to do it. "

She served in the Intelligence Corps, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Arabic Language and Literature and General Philosophy, and a Master's Degree in Education and Organization. Her PhD was frozen upon her appointment as Director General of the Ministry of Education, and has not returned to it since.

At the age of 24, she began working as an Arabic teacher and as an educator at Urban T. High School, where she studied. In 1988 she was appointed high school principal. "The school was going down tremendously back then, and I wanted to produce achievement and success. I believed that through the sport we could build a culture of self-confidence and faith. We set up boys 'and girls' basketball and soccer teams, connected them to Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Yehuda, and really brought a lot of trophies and medals. The message permeated both teachers and students, and they saw that it was possible.

"Even when I came to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, I was very involved in sports. There was a difficult problem with the football association. Things happened badly there. It was in the days of the late Gabri Levi, followed by the late Iche Menachem. All the organizational culture I encountered She was spoiled.

"I'm glad that last year Shino Zuartz came and tried to change, and now Oren Hasson. The goal is to have more sports and less politics."

Shino left pretty quickly.

"Shino left for his reasons, I know he had a hard time. The association's management is very large, it has 29 members, and so it is almost impossible to make a decision. Archaic management practices, members of the board are full of conflicts of interest. , There is a lot of shouting.

"I hope that Oren Hasson (the new chairman) will be able to reduce the number of participants and that the discussions will be more focused and professional so that decisions can be made. Right now, there's a lot of ego, and it's a catastrophe. That is why I hope there will be more women at my decision-making juncture, bringing calm to these bodies. "

She is married to businessman Yochai Tirosh, owner of an insurance agency, and also a sworn fan of Hapoel Tel Aviv. They have three children: Itai (40, real estate agent), Rotem (38, TV presenter and former model) and Guy (32, see invoice). The three children are burnt fans of Maccabi Haifa.

"It was only because of them that I really started to love football. I ran the Tel Aviv Municipal Education Administration and begged my kids to join a team from Tel Aviv, I promised them even if I took them to games myself. But they weren't ready to hear. When I was in fourth grade, he would drive in taxi cabs on Saturday To Kiryat Eliezer.

"Once, in the '90s, we went to a game of Maccabi Haifa at Ramat Gan Stadium, it was still in the days of Eastern Oak. Even my mother joined us. The crowd stood all the time, and when I noticed someone he was hiding from me, he turned and said to me:' Madam, You're not in the theater. '
"I remember that in one of Bnei Yehuda's games against Betar Jerusalem in the Hatikva neighborhood, Ehud Olmert sat not far from me and smoked cigars. We didn't know then. I choked on the smoke, and he hissed: "This is how it is in football." What fun today is not allowed to smoke in the lots. "

She admits that in the past she had never seen the judges, only the players. "If I noticed the judge in some way, it's only when the audience would curse his mother."

And today you can say that you became the judge's mother.

"You know what? You're right. I keep them, I want to be proud of them, and I hope they feel it. In most cases it's just their second job, but they really love it."

Although it has been seven years since Tiroche left the Knesset, with the breakup of her party ahead, she is also talking about this chapter in her life passionately. But here, it seems, the charge left in it is negative.

"I'm the one who needs to do things, push, influence. As one of 120 it's hard to do. In the Knesset, if you don't do anything out of the ordinary, you don't come to terms, and then you don't hear about it. You can do a great parliamentary job, but if not Playing a curse over the Knesset or pouring water on some minister, don't know you exist. Someone would know that Minister Ohana exists if he didn't do things that ... we wouldn't go into. "

Ronit Tirosh // Photo: Tzachi Miriam

So you did provocations too?

"I was standing on the podium and had to shout and raise my voice, because the MKs are sitting in front of you and engaged in a thousand and one things besides listening. I had to radicalize, and every time I would say to myself, 'Ronit, your students are watching you.' And it was tough. "

So you don't miss it.

"Not at all. It's a very competitive work environment, but also very encouraging of enthusiasm and intrigue. Very few times have they seen me in the Knesset buffet, which is where combinations are closed. When I look back, I had a lot of innocence at first."

And you lost it there.

"Yes. I'm not sorry about that, because innocence is good until a certain age, and then it is in your mind. When I was the Director General of the Ministry of Education, I never understood why Limor Livnat kept looking sideways, in a kind of paranoia. It wasn't until I entered the Knesset that I realized why she was doing this. The more I saw her with center members, the more I told myself I would not be there. I felt a professional, non-political person. "

She did not forgive you for going ahead.

"We had a good relationship between a minister and the CEO. It is important to understand, I was not a Likud Center member, nor was I politically affiliated, and she put me in as CEO. I know her thanks for that.

"When the late Ariel Sharon called me to join Kadima, I was shocked. I didn't see it coming. I wanted to think about it. Erez Halfon, who was Eric's political adviser, scolded me and said: 'First say yes, then think'.

"A minute after I gave Sharon a positive answer, I called Limor. I remember she was just about to enter the opera. She really didn't forgive me for it. She saw me as a traitor. That behind her back and stopped talking to me. From her acquaintance with me, she had to understand that was not true. "

Were you angry with her?

"I was hurt by the disconnect, but I wasn't angry. I understood. Later, when I was a member of the education committee, and Limor was the minister of culture and sports, she wanted to pass laws and budgets, and she needed my voice, so she talked to me."

Was there forgiveness?

"We're not types of cafes, so we used to sit 'on her glass,' as she says. I explained everything to her. I don't know if she got it."

Today are you talking?

"We have a close relationship, we occasionally talk about professional matters. For example, when she needs data before she lectures at the conference."

You can already admit that Kadima has failed?

"No. Kadima was a sane right and left platform, without the extremists on both sides. There were people who found a common denominator that they are not at the ends, in favor of the people of Israel. It is not retirees, and not even DS, because it was more right than left."

Like today's white and blue?

"Blue and white is a very similar platform to Kadima."

So did Dina fall apart?

"I wish not, because the alternative is important, but I do not see how it will work out in the long run. In Kadima Tzipi Livni pushed Olmert and Saul Mofaz out. Boogie Ya'alon has the least ego there. "

When your party chairman Ehud Olmert was facing charges and a trial, did you think he should resign?
"Once they reached the indictments resigned, and that is good. But I don't think he should have even been questioned about things done before his term as prime minister. In 2011, I submitted a similar bill to French law, which prohibited police from investigating an incumbent prime minister for offenses he had committed before his term. Then David Bitten changed it for the worse. He put in things done during the priesthood as well. In short, delete the word 'not yet'.

"I am disturbed about Netanyahu. He is quite virtuous, but I want the prime minister to be free in his thoughts and his time on state affairs."

Who do you most deserve to be prime minister?

"I won't answer that for you. It's not healthy for me, because I'm in a public position. I'm right-wing in my opinion, but it doesn't mean anything about my opinion who should head it."

When you look back, what would you define as the role of your life?

"Undoubtedly, principal of Urban T. High School. The proximity to students, the ability to touch a child's soul and make an impact. To this day, I meet graduates of the school, even the few who haven't graduated, and they know me thanks for understanding, attitude, trying to encourage. Adir".

shishabat@israelhayom.co.il