Maccabi Tel Aviv's first volleyball game, in the quarterfinals of the European Challenge Cup against Omonia Nicosia, was stopped this evening (Thursday) for a long time, after the hosts' fans threw flares onto the field at the Hadar Yosef National Sports Center.
The incident happened already during the first set, when the Cypriots were leading 9:10, then several fans threw the flares, when one of them damaged the parquet and burned part of it.
Also, another flare almost hit one of the security guards, when he tried to remove the flares from the hall.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv game blew up due to flares being thrown onto the field, photo: Oren Aharoni
After the serious incident, the judges gathered on the floor to decide what would happen to the match, while the hall workers opened the doors to allow the smoke to escape, with the fire alarm emanating from the detectors scattered in the hall in the background.
While the Cypriots tried to pressure the referees to stop the game, the referees eventually decided to ask the announcer to warn the crowd, that on their side and the incident would repeat itself - the game would be stopped and a technical victory would be determined for Ammonia Nicosia. Even earlier, several objects were thrown onto the field, including a lighter from one of the stands.
After quite a bit of brawling, it was decided that the game would resume only after the audience had left the hall.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv game blew up due to flares being thrown onto the field, photo: Oren Aharoni
In between, the new Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar, also came to watch the game.
"I will eliminate violence in Israeli sports, even if it is the last thing I do," said Zohar, "These violent people will no longer be at any sporting event. I don't remember anything like this. We will remove violence from sports."
Maccabi Tel Aviv's game blew up due to flares being thrown onto the field,
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