How can they not be ashamed?

On Mimar, Gad Amos and the damage to the Premier League

The waste of time between Sakhnin and goalkeeper Gad Amos was exceptional even to the standards of Israeli football.

When a coach says "we will not be pampered" but the audience at home is broken and despairing, the principal should check if there is a phenomenon here that is destroying the product.

And please, just do not say "it's part of the game"

Paz Hasdai

25/12/2021

Saturday, 25 December 2021, 08:40

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Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Bnei Sakhnin 1: 1 (Sport 1)

There is a lot of talk about wasting time in Israeli football, about this ugly, oppressive, destructive, anti-sports phenomenon. But even if things have been said in the past, it is worth repeating and treading on the subject. It is hard to believe how much waste of time is present in the industry in Israel, how they are a common element, not to mention elementary in the game, a symbol of all its failures and lack of culture. The fact that the waste of time sometimes starts at such an early stage of the game implies how much of this is a pre-planned tactic. A coach does not have to tell his players "wasted time", they understand it on their own, absorb it from the environment. It is ingrained, structured, of the cornerstones of football.

And because it's so common, we felt we had seen it all.

That we can not be surprised.

As Yossi Aboksis once said, after complaints that his team did not issue except when an opposing player lay on the grass, "Let them not confuse my mind, I invented these tricks."

We have been experiencing this for years.

Know all the tricks in the book.

This is cheating which is the A-B of football.

All the layouts and twists, the goalkeepers not finding the ball, left.

We are all abacus, small football crooks, accustomed to the lowest standard.

Precisely because of this Gad Amos deserves all the superlatives.

He deserves to be pointed an accusing finger at him.

Because what he did this week in Bnei Sakhnin's game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, we have not seen for a long time.

In a league where fans feel they have already experienced everything, that they are experts in the genre, know all the tricks - we felt he crossed the line.

We have never seen one like it before.

He really gasps.

More on Walla!

Too bad for all of us: Waste of time is the blow of Israeli football

To the full article

Is this point worth the damage to the game?

Mimar (Photo: Maor Elkelsi)

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It is important to dwell on what Bnei Sakhnin did this week.

Do not let it go, do not say "it's part of the game", do not accept it in silence and come to terms with it.

You have to tread on it, analyze it, shout, scream.

Must condemn, protest, punish.

Should make them ashamed.

Let Amos know - we've seen you.

We've seen what you're doing.

Yes, we too, who are supposedly already used to it, feel that this time it was unusual.

More than that, repair is needed. It was almost a groundbreaking event. A game that requires a discussion of rules. It has precedents. In the NBA, for example, they decided to punish flopping. Impostor players pay the price. Whoever cheats, is punished. First a warning, then fines. Injury to the pocket. Why? Because the crowd protested, so the league is not ready to put up with cheating. Then they also changed the laws on extortion. A player who initiates contact, does not receive free throws. It was the league's duty to respond. They felt the product was damaged. That the fans get upset, even the players are disgusted. There was no choice but to discuss the phenomenon, to look for solutions. Change rules. Make it clear to everyone, that way it can not go on.

Ideally, a day after Sakhnin's game in Bloomfield, the principal convenes an emergency meeting.

Industry leaders come together and discuss how to respond to stop the injury in the league, in the game, in the feelings of the fans.

"It can not be that a referee has to give 10 minutes extra time, and they are not played in either!", Someone would say while hitting the table.

The judges' association is organizing a special meeting and is looking for new ways to deal with the phenomenon, how to change the yellow card policy and the warnings and time calculations.

Everyone sits and examines what can be done.

The assumption should be that something must be done.

More on Walla!

The yellow card paradox: on the performances of Gad Amos and Sakhnin

To the full article

The Israeli audience, already accustomed to deceptions and downturns, was also amazed by his performance.

Amos (Photo: Berni Ardov)

It may be that the treatment should be as in disciplinary events. A committee will sit down after the game, and review the videos and footage. That professionals will look at the conduct of the goalkeeper, and examine whether the gasses, whether he has passed the reasonable threshold. And if so, to be punished. Shakes. And if there are video footage showing Sharon Mimar instructing his actor to lie down, that too will be taken care of.

Ideally, there was a culture here that condemned it. Not a mimar who says "we will not be pampered" and gives it a justification, but a coach who admits he was ashamed to see the waste of time of his players. Or a coach who defends his players in public, but then scolds them in the locker room and makes it clear that he expects more from them. Or a manager, a chairman, a landlord, who calls the coach for a conversation and demands that he change his attitude because it shames the club and hurts his image. And there is no intention here to glorify the righteous culture of the Premier League and the morals of English football, but how nice is the memory of the English fan, who neither forgets nor forgives sinners. There should be public pressure. Call for change.

All the mitigating circumstances are known.

Yes, it is clear that Gad Amos is committed first and foremost to Sakhnin and its success and to its fans.

Yes, Sakhnin played an away game against Maccabi Tel Aviv with ten players (hello, a draw against them is not a great honor).

This may be a vile tactic, originating in defeatism, but not Sakhnin invented it.

It may be just the whining of a privileged large group that is angry at a small group that dared to oppose and interfere with it.

During the game they are limited, it may be worthwhile for a disciplinary committee to help and intervene.

Shmuelevich and the judges (Photo: Berni Ardov)

But to say "it's part of the game" misses the point.

Once upon a time in football there was also no jamb and no exchanges.

Once upon a time, a goalkeeper could also grab a hand when a ball was returned to him.

The game knows how to adjust itself, respond.

If within the rules there is a degrading tactic whose whole stated purpose is to frustrate the opponent, to irritate it, to throw it off balance, to cause the game not to progress, not to be worn out, for time to pass aimlessly - then it must be fought.

Because in the bottom line, with all due respect to the team fighting for its life (in the above case it is a league game without extraordinary dramatic importance), there is something bigger here. The football fans who watch leagues from all over the world, football from all over Europe, and feel that such a thing can only happen in Israel.

• sport

Tags

• Bnei Sakhnin

• Gad Amos

• Sharon Mimar