Two weeks after the inauguration of the government, Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar could not have received a better lesson than this for entering his position, when he saw in front of his eyes yesterday (Thursday), in the quarter-final match of the Challenge Cup in volleyball between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Nicosia of Cyprus, the ills of the ills in Israeli sports.
A number of people, who call themselves fans, came to the game at Hadar Yosef wearing masks, with one goal only - to blow up the game!
While they were throwing lighters and flares, one of which almost hit one of the officials and caused damage to the parquet that burned.
But worse than that, two precedents were set in this game, never before seen in Israeli sports: for the first time, all the fans were required to leave the hall, according to the requirements of the European Union, as a final condition that would allow the game to end in order.
A second precedent was the appearance of the sports minister in front of those fans, holding the microphone and asking them to stop the ugly behavior, when one of them simply put a line on the minister and continued to throw everything that came near, which caused the visiting team to go down to the dressing rooms.
Glamor.
He received the truth inside, photo: Oren Aharoni
Perhaps precisely after these events, courage came out sweet.
While until today, in most cases of the past, the ministers saw the same cases on television and did not experience them firsthand, perhaps this time, the unusual game in Tel Aviv will be the straw that broke the camel's back and instead of the sea of talk, they will begin to move into action.
As soon as the same fan throws the flare the next time, he will immediately be prosecuted and convicted - and will receive a severe punishment - lifelong exclusion from the fields and up to several years in prison, so maybe he will think 80 times before he even touches that flare.
True, no one expects the fans to come and sit quietly, but it can be done differently, all this without ruining the game, or hurting hundreds of other fans who came to cheer and support their team, but in the end found themselves leaving the hall in shame.
There are still quite a few problems in Israeli sports, but one of the heavy issues is the violence on the fields, and maybe this time, it will be Miki Zohar, who will put an end to it.
We can only wish him luck.
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