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The legal reform that is really necessary for football fans Israel today

2023-01-19T16:29:25.195Z


"Radius to Beitar Jerusalem" has long since become a common expression in our football language • Honorable judges, you are not really punishing the flare thrower • It is a shame that so many are punished, for no injustice


It's hard not to experience "déjà vu" when you are a fan of Beitar Jerusalem. The judges of the disciplinary court of the Football Association simply do not allow us another reality: one fan lit a flare in the stands during the Jerusalem derby, and the crowd and the entire club are punished in a Radius match without an audience. Punishment On an automaton, almost Pavlovian. One law for Betar, and another law for the rest.

Again the same ritual, again a disproportionate collective punishment, and again those who pay the price are those whose only sin is the love of the game.

I was probably naive, but after a year of Corona and football without an audience, I thought that the understanding had already been internalized that there is no place for such a punishment, and that football without an audience is a missing experience, to be avoided at all costs.

But hopes separately, and reality separately.

Sometimes I wonder to myself if these judges even like football.

Their conduct suggests that this must not be their preferred industry, if at all.

Let there be no mistakes.

The damage is not to the club or its owner.

The truth is that the players are not the main victims here either.

The football-loving audience, which waits every week for the game - in the rain, in the summer, in successes and disappointments - is the main punished.

Beitar Jerusalem fans. The radius penalty was applied again, photo: Alan Shiver

I know that my personal experience is shared by almost all my sisters and brothers from the stands.

From a young age, football has been a refuge for me.

As a young ultra-orthodox boy whom society didn't understand, the only place I felt at home was the Mizrahi stand at Teddy.

In some seasons I came more, in some seasons I came less, but every time I came, my mind calmed down.

Each of the fans has a different story, but they all have a clear common denominator: the love for Beitar is a lifeline.

Honorable judges, you are not really punishing the flare thrower.

You are punishing the truck driver who worked hard all week and is waiting for the game to pull some bones.

You punish the doctor in a hospital who works impossible shifts and his weekly refresher is his team's games.

You are punishing the child who has trouble in school and whose parent promised that if he tries harder she will take him to a Beitar game. You are punishing the mother who waits all week for two hours of quiet, the ultra-orthodox boy or girl whose football fandom provides them with the youth rebellion they so long for. -So many are punished, for doing no injustice to them.

So what did you want to achieve, dear lawyers?

One flare is lit, and a whole crowd of people is hurt.

To the thrower of the flare it certainly won't move, and from all the other people you have denied great comfort and consolation.

Well, actually this is also a kind of message: get rid of football, you're basically telling us, it's not worth it.

*Yaakov Sela is a media consultant, a Beitar Jerusalem fan

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Source: israelhayom

All sports articles on 2023-01-19

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