Maccabi fans were outraged, the municipality of Haifa retracted: "We thought it was a nice gesture"

The decision to paint the city hall in the colors of France in honor of the arrival of Paris Saint-Germain caused many complaints that accumulated, the mayor ordered a change

Voila system!

sport

13/09/2022

Tuesday, September 13, 2022, 7:50 p.m

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Tikteknu, today's summary clip 13.9 (Sport1)

Paris Saint-Germain with its many stars, including Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, landed a short time ago at Ben Gurion Airport and is making its way to the hotel in Haifa, where it will stay until it leaves for the Carmel Stadium for tomorrow's Champions League match against Maccabi Haifa (Wednesday, 22 :00).

The excitement in Haifa is definitely evident in anticipation of the first game that Maccabi Haifa will ever host as part of the Champions League in the city - in the past the team had to migrate to Cyprus due to the security situation in Israel and host their games in the previous campaign over a decade ago at the Ramat Gan Stadium - and in the last few hours it was the decision of the Haifa municipality that caused the uproar.

Initially, it was decided that the colors of the Haifa City Hall would be painted this evening in the colors of the French flag to honor Paris Saint-Germain, but the Maccabi Haifa fans were outraged by this and therefore Mayor Einat Kalish-Rotem instructed the city staff to change the illumination of the colors of the City Hall to green already this evening and until the game

The city hall building was first painted blue-white-red (Photo: Reuven Cohen, Haifa Municipality)

The fans were enraged and the building was soon painted green (Photo: Reuven Cohen, Haifa Municipality Spokesperson)

Many fans were outraged by the initial decision made by the Haifa municipality and flooded social networks and the municipality staff with complaints until it was decided to paint the municipality building green.

Eliran Tal, the spokesman for the municipality, even wrote on his personal Facebook page: "Haifa is a tolerant city and welcomes its guests. Tonight the players of Paris Saint-Germain are coming here and we thought it would be a nice tribute in their honor. Athos and the municipality of Haifa also placed a huge sign in the Carmel that welcomes Maccabi and it is clear to you that we all want the success of Haifa in the Champions League.

Even those who are not green.

What the Haifa municipality administration has done in recent years for Maccabi Haifa, they haven't done here for a long time.

"We will only mention the championship celebrations, a street named after Yankela Shahar and, of course: the Maccabi Museum that is being established these days in collaboration with the club, Tal continued, "So let's focus on the good, tomorrow we will cheer the players to the end (from the field for the lucky ones, in homes or pubs in the city) And remember: it's just sport, friends."

In the meantime, the spokeswoman for the Carmel region said that Israel Police officers and hundreds of ushers and security guards will be deployed tomorrow starting in the afternoon in the stadium and outside in order to maintain order and security, along with regulating traffic.

The game will start at 10:00 p.m. and the stadium gates will open from 7:00 p.m., with the request to ticket buyers to arrive early due to the expected traffic congestion, check the parking tags at the roadblocks, as well as the strict check at the entrances to the stadium.

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Super League

Tags

• Maccabi Haifa

• Paris Saint Germain