Betar Curse: What attracts dubious owners to the huge club who are abandoning one after the other? | Israel Today

American sports love mystery stories about phenomena that cannot be explained.

Chisbats, if you will.

One of the famous plots tells of the goat curse of the Chicago Cubs.

The legend tells of a fan who asked to enter with his goat for one of the team’s home games, about 100 years ago.

When the team's management refused, he imposed a curse on the club, which reportedly prevented the team from winning the championship for many years.

Throughout that lengthy period, until the curse was actually broken only in 2015, Chicago missed quite a few opportunities to win the title, sometimes even illogically.

Any such loss only heightened the myth of the curse that lay upon the Cubs.

Boston, too, concentrated on the Babe Roth curse for several decades, until the Red Sox removed it in 2004, so examples are not lacking.

Another curse was published in the Jerusalem sports scene that prevented Betar from winning the championship for seven years, and was associated with the famous players' ceremony held at the time between Egypt and Tisha B'Av. All this happened in 2000, under the ownership of Gad Zeevi On groups refraining from doing business on the day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple.That is, the belief in mysterious powers exists here as well.

The chairman and professional director of Betar Jerusalem, Eli Ohana, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

"There are a lot of pressures"

How can you explain what is happening to everyone who takes over ownership of the Betar Jerusalem football club?

Kobi Ben Gur and Gad Zeevi have suffered quite a few financial bumps from the moment they made their way home and garden.

Arkady Gaydamak turned out to be a megalomaniac who tried to become mayor before fleeing, he was allegedly smuggled, following involvement in international arms deals.

Goma Aguiar, who tried to help as a main sponsor more than a decade ago, disappeared in the waters of the Atlantic after a particularly turbulent period.

After him came to me Tabib, who got involved in the affair of beating a fan and survived attempts to assassinate him.

And here we come to Moshe Hogg, the main suspect in the "big game" affair, whose name has already been linked to another delusional event, when he tried to bring financial aid from Sheikh Hamed bin Khalifa.

Tabib (right) and Gaydamak, Photo: Alan Shiver, Yehoshua Yosef

If it had been one or even two owners getting involved, we might have been discussing a rare coincidence here.

However, this is a recurring routine, counting at the same time 14 years since the last championship.

The "big game" affair, then, only intensified the discourse around a possible curse and became a real buzz in Teddy's stands.

"Factually, everything is true. Everyone got involved in one way or another, including Meir Penigel and Sasson Shem Tov," claims former actor Shmulik Levy.

"If you're looking for magic and magic and sorcery you can go in that direction, but I think there are a lot of reasons that might be hard to explain to someone who comes from outside."

Moshe Celebrates, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

Levy is aware of the difficult period the group is going through.

"There is a lot of pressure here, and we saw that it affected a coach who may have had a hard time adjusting to it when he landed here from the Netherlands. There is a magnifying glass, so you always look at what you are doing. It is possible that if Arkady or Tabib, for example, had remained a little anonymous and a little distant, they might not have even gotten involved and we certainly would not have heard of their complications. But when you are in Betar, you are suddenly examined In tassels and everything related to you becomes interesting. "

"Betar has difficult years ahead"

Indeed, as mentioned, Betar Jerusalem repeatedly provides reasons to be interested in its functioning. After the Cubs' curse, the consistent complications that Betar encounters raise the question of whether it is imprisoned in witchcraft.

According to Ricky Kitaro, a psychic, communicator and card reader, "there have been many cases where luck stopped at a football team. I remember cases that came to me and things that everyone encountered, such as the drought of Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa.

There are curses and rituals that work against groups and even against specific people associated with the group, and this can be related to any of the previous owners. "

Teddy Stadium, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

Kitaro has no encouraging news for the Jerusalem team in the near future.

"Betar will have a difficult time in the next five years," she says.

"Even the danger of closure will hover over it, but it seems that Betar will survive this as well because there will be someone to protect it in the end. There are ways to remove curses, such as purges and the like, but within five years, Betar will stabilize."

However, there are those who treat the noises with contempt regarding a magical figure hovering over Betar Jerusalem.

So how, after all, with Mitch Goldhaar's Maccabi Tel Aviv and Yankele Shachar's Maccabi Haifa, are things flowing smoothly and in such a quiet way compared to what is happening in Jerusalem?

"People's Share"

On the face of it, Betar Jerusalem is one of the most popular groups in Israel, if not the most popular among them. How did even smaller groups find much more stable owners?

Betar Jerusalem fans, Photo: Alan Shiver

If we take the curse in question out of the equation, there are still quite a few reasons that might make anyone who wants to enter Betar Jerusalem think twice. Are these the fans, local politics, or the media coverage too broad?

"There is an understanding among those who are interested or acquiring Betar that this is not a regular club," says Nadav Strauchler, a communications and strategy consultant, a Betar infancy fan who regularly populates Teddy's stands, and now also a sponsor of the women's group we will return to later. "When you enter Betar, you not only buy a football team with 11 players and a coach, but also the people's stock," claims Strauchler. "Streets and Afula to Kiryat Shmona. A wide audience of various ages. It is a club that is more than a football team, it symbolizes the people. A Betar player once told me that he is responsible for the mood of half a million people - and that is real."

"I have heard people talk about it, but I do not think there is such a thing," he says. "True, Jerusalem is a mystical city with a syndrome associated with its name.

It is no coincidence that Teddy from Jerusalem always uses the word "excuser", and the song that reaches the most decibels is "We Believe My Believers".

Betar is a club that is connected to tradition, and those who are connected to tradition are connected to beliefs. "Deciphering the club's DNA, you see."

Explain.

"This club evokes a lot of emotions even from very rational and calm people. Not at the level of violence, but at the level of emotion of course. It may happen in other groups as well, but in Betar it is different and sometimes affects, especially those who come from outside, as we saw with Goma and even With recent coach Erwin Coman.

There is pressure here alongside insane energies, which originate not only in the heavy history of the city of Jerusalem, but also in the great ethos associated with the club such as Eli Ohana and Uri Melmillian, but also Ruby Rivlin, Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu.

These are names that create emotions on their own.

If you ask the average person on the street who owns each team in the Premier League, he's not sure he will know.

But if you say Arkady, Goma or even Moshe Dadash, that's a different story.

There is a historical and political section here.

Goma Aguiar, Photo: Lior Mizrahi

"You are in such a central place with such high exposure, on the center of the pavilion in the State of Israel. This is not an ordinary club and the people who come are probably not really ordinary either. In my opinion, the next owner of Betar will not be a generic person from the community It's a club that is anything but generic. "

According to the view presented by Levy and Strauchler, it is possible that if Goldhaar had lived in Israel and Jerusalem in particular, or he would have gotten dirty on his own or they would have found something incriminating about him a long time ago.

Waiting for the Messiah on duty

So how do you break the chain?

Betar Jerusalem does not have a talented youth department, and the training ground and stadium do not belong to it. What it has is hundreds of thousands of fans, but even in this aspect quite a few problems have arisen. Almost irreversible. In recent weeks, especially after the violent incidents linked to the signing of Muslim player Kamso Mara, there has been an organization designed to take out "La Familia" as much as possible from Teddy's fans. The real work in finding the next investor.

"La Familia" fans, Photo: Alan Schieber

"Feeling we have 'Run out of gas' emotionally, we're starting to run out of time. "If ten thousand fans come to oppose what is being done to the team player Kamso Mara, it means that there is a change and a Muslim player in Betar is already 'non-personal'. It also means that the audience at 99.9 percent goes against this line that represents racism at all costs. This is a very significant and important change in the maturation process of Betar Jerusalem fans, who understand that the time has come not only to talk but also to do. "

In this context, Strauchler himself decided to take action and together with the company of which he is a partner, "Laniado Strauchler", took under his auspices the women's group of the club.

"On a personal level, after the incident where my team's fans were beaten by 'La Familia' men, I decided it was time to do something and came in as a sponsor. The message, more than one success or another on the pitch, is the very existence of a team open to all. There is a right-wing defender who observes Shabbat, there are ultra-Orthodox actresses alongside a Muslim pioneer and a new immigrant from the United States.

This is Betar and this is Jerusalem. "

Ultimately, Betar's future goes hand in hand with its fans and they are the ones who can create the right conditions for recovery - whether through making the club more attractive to purchase, or through helping any management that maintains it.

In a season that seems so bleak, the role of the crowd begins first and foremost with leaving the team in the league.

"The Betar audience does not include too many rich people who are able to own a group, certainly not with high ambitions," concludes Strauchler.

With eternity, I am not afraid of a long road. "

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