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Who even wants to be the state team? - Walla! sport

2022-08-27T05:20:48.763Z


Ayelet Shaked's announcement about Ali Muhammad alongside Barak Bakr's statement that Maccabi Haifa has become a "state team" caused unpleasant feelings, which should also worry the green fans


Who even wants to be the state team?

Ayelet Shaked's announcement about Ali Muhammad alongside Barak Bakr's statement that Maccabi Haifa has become a "state team" caused unpleasant feelings, which should also worry the green fans.

What is the great fun in being a consensus and national pride?

Paz Hasdai

08/27/2022

Saturday, August 27, 2022, 08:00

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Maccabi Haifa's welcome upon landing in Israel (Photo: Kobi Eliyahu. Editing: Lear Spiegel)

One can understand why Barak Becher stated this week that Maccabi Haifa has become "the team of the state".

He was euphoric about the achievement, he was flooded with messages and hugs, the Prime Minister and the President congratulated him and his team in public, his team's qualification was featured on the front pages of newspapers and news releases, and the media and thousands of fans gave him a reception at the airport reminiscent of the Entebbe operation.

It is likely that Bacher was aiming more for the area of ​​"national pride" rather than the derogatory term, but that is what he said, "the group of the state".



And this is dangerous, and unnecessary, because Maccabi Haifa does not want to become a "state team", and it really shouldn't.

After all, already on the same day of that statement by Bakr, the Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked announced that she was advancing the process of Ali Muhammad's naturalization, and this had already begun to produce unpleasant feelings, of where and where, political exploitation, proximity to the high windows and the government, protection.

Already on the same day that Bacher declared that Maccabi Haifa was the state's team,

Why is it no longer enough to be the group of her fans?

Bachar (Photo: Maor Alxalsi)

Does the state help a group of the state?

Muhammad and Shaked (Photo: Reuven Castro, Barney Ardov)

We will not go into Muhammad's eligibility for Israeli citizenship (Baruch HaBa), but only the feelings it evokes.

to the associations it brings up.

To the inevitable comparison, to Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball, to Shimonizrahism, the same code name for a cruel and corrupt power, which the old Maccabi Haifa fans so loathed all their lives and tried to separate from it.

Is this what Bacher wants?

Where is he headed?

Why is it no longer enough to be the group of her fans?

If he really wanted to coach the national team, he would have gone to the national team.



In fact, in many ways Maccabi Haifa is really a type of the state's team.

It's not just the fact that it has the largest audience in the country, at least according to the numbers of the last few seasons.

Unlike the others in the group of "big ones" (for the sake of discussion we will include Beitar Jerusalem for the time being), it is not really hated (relatively). It did not have the predatory and arrogant image of Maccabi Tel Aviv, the racist and popular image of Beitar Jerusalem, the leftist and cynical image of Hapoel Tel Aviv;

Maccabi Haifa was devoid of political or social characteristics, Sahith in the vernacular, with professional successes and attractive years.

The feeling is that if there is a football fan whose father did not stick him to a team, did not make him a fan of Netanya or Hapoel Petah Tikva or Be'er Sheva, if a person does not have a team to support or roots from home - he will become a Maccabi Haifa fan.

This is the easy choice.

Where is Maccabi Haifa headed?

Mizrahi (Photo: Ariel Shalom)

If Maccabi Haifa wants to preserve this status, it should stay away from the government, or from the pursuit of representation or becoming a national symbol.

Because in fact, what is it in the first place that the "state group" continued to be?

Since when is this aspiration?

Why is this a goal?

Who cares about the embrace of the general public?

On the contrary, exactly the opposite.

For the hard core of the Maccabi Haifa crowd, the true, dedicated fans, success is only theirs.

What do they care about the country?

They even want to mock the rest of the country now.

Teasing everyone else, the yellows and the reds.

The only desire is to be proud of their achievement, of the Greens, not of Israeli football.

Most football fans don't really want to make the country happy.

For them, the state will shape, eat the heart, it will only increase the pleasure.



When the Hapoel Tel Aviv fans hung a sign "representing Hapoel and not Israel" it was an attempt to defy, but also a truth that represents the attitude of most sports fans.

Even the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball fans, those who wave the Israeli flags and sing the national anthem before the games, even for them "the country" is not really important.

They admired Charas and Parker, Magee and Johnson, and for them the team would win with the All-American lineup.

A great group, but a "social phenomenon"?!

Oh really (photo: Kobi Eliyahu)

Wanting to be "the team of the country" symbolizes cowardice and hogwash.

Being "the team of the state" comes with a lot of negative charges, and very quickly begins to provoke antagonism.

For example, the request to postpone the game from the first round may be correct, undoubtedly logical, but the way (public pressure, messages in the media, new and special rules) was distorted and caused an uncomfortable feeling.

At some point the state group starts to think that they need to be helped, doesn't understand why they are bothering them, lives with the feeling of "I deserve it" and expects a constant hug from the establishment.

This week, a few hours after her landing, in the "Sport News" the reporter called Maccabi Haifa a "social phenomenon".

Well, bye.



It is likely that the majority of Maccabi Haifa fans are really not in this direction.

They are not interested in being embraced by institutions and becoming a consensus, they are disgusted by politicians taking a ride on their group, the last thing they want is to see the representatives of the government on their podium, waiting for the presentation of the national project.

Bachar's statement was unnecessary.

Maccabi Haifa does not need an entire country behind it.

It just spoils the fun.

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Source: walla

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