Following the punishments imposed on Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, the chairman of the leagues administration, Erez Kalfon, expressed his anger at the decisions this evening (Thursday) in an unusual letter, which he wrote to the president of the Supreme Court of the Football Association, Amnon Strashnov.
"The soccer industry in Israel derives its right to exist from the crowd of soccer fans - at the level of interest, aspect, atmosphere, passion and also at the economic level;
"Without the fans - there will be no football in Israel," wrote the management.
It also reads: "In addition to the injustice that this punishment causes to a huge audience of spectators, it harms the efforts of the administration and the clubs to expand the circle of participants in the football celebration, severely damages subscription sales, destroys the experience of the televised game, discourages team owners from investing in football clubs and creates completely justified grumbling and unrest among 99% of the football fans who are honest, normative and law-abiding people who faithfully accompany their team every week throughout the country and in any weather."
"If this punishment had been effective, if it had been there to prevent the recurrence of the phenomena or to reduce the violence in the fields (which would indirectly have led to an increase in the number of the crowd) - we discussed, but it seems that there is no dispute that the punishment is not effective, that the rioters are not deterred, that the phenomena repeat themselves again and again (in most cases more that) when the real 'punished' are the normative fans (including families, women and children), the teams, the players, the business partners and the entire football industry."
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
Another radius penalty, photo: Maor Alxalsi
The administration concluded: "Since its inception, the Football Leagues Administration has waged a war of attrition against the phenomena of rioting on the fields, and these days it works in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Israel Football Association and other bodies to complete legislative changes that will allow the imposition of specific and severe sanctions on the rioters in a way that will significantly reduce these illegal phenomena."
"At the same time as these moves, it seems that the time has come to 'change the diskette', for the entire football industry, regarding punishing the crowd and trying other solutions; the honorable court has a diverse toolbox that allows sanctions to be applied to teams where it has been proven that they did not take reasonable measures to fight in these illegal phenomena. I will ask the honorable court to put these considerations before its eyes in its decision regarding the punishment of an audience as given by the disciplinary court."
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