Maccabi Haifa advanced to the Champions League

A lot of respect, a lot of money, but not the dawn of a new day

Every time an Israeli team succeeds in qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League, the fans begin to fantasize about total dominance in the local league, in the model we have become accustomed to from Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball.

Why, despite the similarities between Shimon Mizrahi and Yaakov Shahar, is this not going to happen?

Nir Kipnis

08/24/2022

Wednesday, August 24, 2022, 12:00

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Maccabi Haifa players celebrate qualifying for the group stage with a meal together (courtesy of Maccabi Haifa)

Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball is the inspiration of almost every sports club in Israel.

Even its biggest haters, if pushed into a corner, admit that they are jealous: there is no other club in Israeli sports (and very few in world sports as well) that knew how to take advantage of a sporting opportunity, to translate it into financial success that placed them far above any other competitive sports club - and to leverage these two To create a unity between the national and the sports and become a team of the state.

The "Maccabees model" that we have learned to know and love (or love-hate) from the basketball industry, is so strongly burned into our collective sports memory that every time an Israeli team qualifies for the group stage of the Champions League, sports fans in Israel are divided into two: fans of that team who fantasize about a single rule In the local soccer scene - and all the rest, fans of other teams, who pray that it won't happen.

Well, our first news this time is for all those who are worried: Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball took advantage of a magical moment in the public's heart (combined, of course, with great sporting success) to become the country's team, conditions that could have existed in the mid-70s of the last century, but It is highly doubtful whether they can exist after 45 years.

No longer a small country surrounded by enemies.

Yaakov Shahar (photo: official website, Maccabi Haifa)

Let's go back for a moment in the time tunnel to the mid-70s of the 20th century: Israel is a small country surrounded by enemies - and not only in the tough neighborhood where we live: the energy crisis and the Arab boycott also have a political impact and the United Nations, the same body that granted Israel independence, declares on Zionism as racism. In such an atmosphere, every victory over the gentiles, whatever they are, becomes a tremendous elation among the Israeli public: it doesn't matter if it is a patrol of the Defense Forces in Entebbe, with the late Yoni Netanyahu, at the Eurovision Song Contest with Yizhar Cohen, at the Miss Universe contest with Rina Moore (The last two will be distinguished for a long life.) The main thing, as Tal Brody said in the most famous sentence in the history of Israeli sports, is to be "on the map".

Every European Cup game for the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball champions is broadcast on the only channel and receives 100% ratings, in a country where there is very little to do except sit in front of the black and white screen.

Before every home game, Moshe Dayan, the ultimate Israeli symbol, comes up to shake the hands of the players, every match against CSKA (which initially boycotted Maccabi and indirectly enabled them to win the historic cup of 1977) becomes "Send my people" and every team on the Thessaloniki axis -Athens-Piraeus becomes a modern Antiochus.

The most similar case in world sports is that of Manchester United in football, whose appearance in what would later become the "Champions League" was the English pilot for broadcasting live football matches, that the Munich disaster was watched on every television or "diary " in the cinema - and later she knew how to translate this enormous popularity into a stock offering that was more successful than expected and turned a failed owner like Martin Edwards into the most successful in England, on the field and in the souvenir shop.

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Shahar admires his management method.

Shimon Mizrahi (Photo: Udi Tsitiat)

Maccabi Haifa's first appearance in the prestigious stage of the Champions League was already in 2002, so we have a perspective of 20 years.

Since then, it has appeared there one more time - and now it marks a third qualification, an unprecedented achievement for an Israeli soccer team.

Already 20 years ago, closer to the days of Maccabi Tel Aviv's absolute control of the basketball scene in Israel, it was possible to understand that this may be Europe, but not Maccabi any more: television is decentralized, to the point that even a fascinating football game no longer takes the breath away of an entire country, but for every More than 20% of TV viewers.

Even the local patriotism is no longer what it used to be: if in the 70's a "Maccabi hater" was seen by the general public as almost a supporter of terrorism, after the passage of more than 45 years, it is completely understandable to us why a fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv or Hapoel Beer Sheva, is not Must be a part of the joy of the champions of the greens from Haifa.

Specifically in the owner section, a certain identity is noted: Yaakov Shahar is a fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball (everyone remembers how he preferred the Final Four in Paris to his team's championship game in Teddy), he admires Shimon Mizrahi's management method, and in many ways tries to position Maccabi His Haifa as a kind of "state team".

Sometimes it works for him, the point is that the country is no longer the same country.

Don't get me wrong: these are piles of money, but not Alman Israel - in an era when competitors received money from the municipality or the Hapoalim council to exist, a rewarding broadcast contract with the Israel Broadcasting Authority had a dramatic effect on economic capabilities, but in an era of private ownership, Mitch Goldhar (for example , and to a lesser but possible extent - also Alona Barkat) can decide that he allows his group a few tens of millions more to close the gap.

Even if he does not rush to do so, it is doubtful whether Shahar (who has already invested about a billion shekels in his team) will rush to use all the amounts of their grants that Maccabi Haifa will win to strengthen it now and immediately.

I want to say: we may see another foreigner or two, but it is not Olsey Perry and Earl Williams, who were one level above any foreigner who played in another team (or the group of Israelis, according to their identity or according to the correct certificate, such as Lou Silver, Jim Boatright and others ).

The fans of the rival have quite a few reasons to fear.

Maccabi Haifa celebrates in Belgrade (Photo: GettyImages, Srdjan Stevanovic)

Still, fans of the other teams have reason to fear.

Yaakov Shahar may not be able to do for Maccabi Haifa in football what Shimon Mizrahi did for Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball, but he certainly influences the ongoing present, and of course its future, in a more moderate, but clear way: Maccabi Haifa has already upgraded itself to a club that once contained only two Teams: Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv, which except for curiosities like Hapoel Petach Tikva, Maccabi Netanya, Beitar Jerusalem, not to mention Kiryat Shmona, Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Kfar Saba, or phenomena that need more time to be defined as Hapoel Beer Sheva, divided between them (mainly Maccabi ) all the titles in Israeli football.

Moreover, because we have already said: Maccabi Haifa is the first to become champions for the third time - and when it does so in 20 years, its fans can hope that it will increase the frequency, for example to an appearance in the group stage every 3-4 years.

If this happens, Maccabi Haifa will turn over the years into a kind of Ajax, Benfica or Real Madrid - that is, the team that has to lose the championship for another team to win it.

It seems to me that in an era where there is no longer "the state team", both Yaakov Shahar and the Maccabi Haifa fans would have signed this deal with both hands.

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Super League

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• Maccabi Haifa

• Jacob Shahar