In recent months, violence in Israeli sports has included stone-throwing, assaulting players and officials, assaulting injured fans, street fights, the consequences of smoke grenades and flares, manifestations of racism and more.
The Football Leagues Administration intends to place nets behind the stands, install cameras on the pitches and hand out administrative reports to prevent riots. But have the police taken a hard hand against those outlaws? How many fans have a criminal case opened? The answers, as you will read, are very surprising.
Israel Today has received a report from the Israel Police, which divides the number of cases opened by the police in the years 2021-2018 for violent offenses in sports. Game and racist expression. The report in question is presented by segmentation, type of offense and status of the case, but a review of it raises quite a few questions.
We will dive into the data.
Despite countless cases of violence on the pitches in the past year, only 28 cases were opened in 2021.
By comparison, in 2018 53 cases were opened, in 2019 37 were opened, and in 2020, when fans were not allowed to enter the pitches for most of the season due to the outbreak of the corona virus, only 18 cases were opened.
In other words, despite the proliferation of violence in recent months - far fewer criminal cases have been opened against fans.
Flares on the lawn during the derby.
Poor care, Photo: Alan Schieber
A few weeks ago, the Racism and Violence Report was published to summarize the first round of the 2021/22 season, as part of the New Israel Fund's "Kicking Racism and Violence Off the Fields" program. Fan by Betar Jerusalem fans, injury of a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan by throwing a torch, eight fan burglaries on the lawn, in one of which Eddie Gottlieb and Raz Twisser were attacked, 15 games in which torches and smoke grenades were lit, and more and more. In view of the large number of cases, it made sense for more cases to be opened - but this did not happen.
A particularly disturbing figure from the police report comes from Sakhnin. In October, Bnei Sakhnin fans were recorded on television cameras throwing stones at a Maccabi Netanya fan stand at Doha Stadium. The guest, who was in the carriage with her baby, also had a fan riot in Doha during the game against Betar Jerusalem. Want to guess how many cases were opened this year in Sakhnin for violence on the sports fields? You will not believe it - only one case, which according to the report is still under investigation. How does such a thing happen? Is it the absence of police in Sakhnin? Judge for yourself.
As mentioned, since the beginning of 2021, 28 cases have been opened for violent offenses on the football fields.
Sixteen cases have already been filed, mainly on the grounds of "lack of evidence" or because "the circumstances of the case are not suitable for prosecution or opening an investigation."
Two more cases, according to the report, are in the process of being closed. This means that 18 cases out of the 28 opened in 2021, which is a little over 64 percent, have been shelved or are on the way to closure.
Police cavalry outside Bloomfield Stadium.
Everything at a glance ?, Photo: Alan Schieber
It should be noted that six cases opened in 2021 are still under investigation, one is pending, one in the State Attorney's Office, and two judicial decisions have been made.
107 cases out of 136 cases opened in the years 2021-2018 - were shelved.
Pay attention to the numbers: this is almost 78 percent of all cases opened in the last four years.
With such data, why would fans be afraid to act violently?
In which city have the most cases been opened for offenses on sports fields in recent years?
The leader is Haifa, with 25 portfolios.
Next on the list are Petah Tikva (23), Jerusalem (19), Tel Aviv (17) and Beer Sheva (14).
The Israel Police response: "The Israel Police considers any violent violent activity in sporting events and in general. Every complaint is thoroughly examined and in accordance with the quality of evidence and findings collected from the field, "And not as stated in your application. We will continue to act with all the means at our disposal, in order to maintain the safety of the public and the spectators in the football fields and in general."
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