"Israel Hayom" exposure: representatives of local authorities on the way to a football association | Israel today

The elections in the football association are supposed to be held at the end of December, just after Esakona returns from the World Cup games in Qatar, and it is already clear that they are going to be more stormy than ever.

First, although it appears at the moment that Oren Hasson will remain the only candidate within the historical status quo between Hapoel and Maccabi (Hapoel controls the Football Association and Maccabi the Israeli Olympic Committee), the Football Association expects surprises from the direction of Shino Zoertz, when quite a bit of talk is heard that the days of the status quo may have arrived Finally, Maccabi can appoint a chairman to the two largest sports bodies in the country.

But while the struggle for the leadership of the association is symbolic, where it really matters, behind the scenes and in the structure of the association itself, historic battles have been taking place in recent days.

Shino Zoartz.

Is the status quo about to break?, Photo: Udi Tsitiat

On the one hand, attorney Moran Meiri, a man from Maccabi Tel Aviv and probably the most powerful man in the Premier League together with Yaakov Shahar. Meiri sees the interests of the richest team in Israel before his eyes and of course also those of the largest and most cash-rich teams, which of course threatens not only The representatives of the small teams, but also on the veteran businessmen, headed by the one who is defined as the chairman of the real football association, the man of Hapoel, the never-ending Stern Halova.

While Meiri brings with him the approach of money and progress, Halova is a sophisticated street cat who anticipated a cure for the blow, and began a historic process: in recent weeks, Halova contacted a number of mayors and the local authority, with the aim of joining them and bringing representatives of the local authorities into the football association.

The interest is clear: all the soccer fields in Israel, certainly those where the teams from the lower leagues play, belong to the municipal authority when no soccer club in Israel owns its own field.

The local authorities have been working in recent years to introduce representatives to the various sports associations with the aim of strengthening their power in the field of sports.

An intrusion by the authorities into the most popular sport in the country will change the balance within the association.

Stern Haluba,

But this is not the end of the expected structural change in the football association.

In the last two years, when the influence of the Arab teams in the various leagues in Israel increased, the claim was made, and rightly so, by the football people from the sector, that it is not possible for them to have such poor representation in the football association and they demand an increase in the number of representatives around the decision-making table, which will of course affect the budgets.

And speaking of budgets, for the happy promotion of the young team to the European Championship, the association will receive a grant of 2.5 million euros.

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