Tonight Hapoel Holon will continue its journey in the top 16 stage of the FIBA Champions League when it hosts AAK Athens at its temporary home in Hungary. This will also be the first meeting of the Greeks with an Israeli team, eight months since Hapoel Jerusalem fans were attacked in the stands in Athens during a match between the teams .
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For those who forgot - a reminder: AAK fans lit fireworks and firecrackers and threw stones inside the hall towards Hapoel Y-M fans, some of whom were injured and needed medical treatment;
And if that wasn't enough, many Palestinian flags were seen in the stands, and the locals also burned the Israeli flag.
Following those difficult events, the management of the factory imposed on AAK Athens a penalty of an entire game season without an audience at home games, a punishment that was later increased to admit an audience of up to 20% of the capacity of the local hall, which contains 9,327 seats. The behavior of the audience hurt the club and put it in a deficit economic.
Officials in Greece privy to the details told "Israel Hayom" that the team lost an amount estimated at one million euros this season due to the ban on the entrance of the audience and the possibility of selling tickets and subscriptions to the hall within the European framework, alongside the loss of additional income as a result of the damage caused by its fans to its name.
During the summer, AK fielded a high-quality squad that included names like Ben McLemore and Jordan McRae with the goal of fighting for all the titles in honor of the 100th season in its history, but as mentioned, ran into financial difficulties and stopped paying salaries to the players and staff.
The situation at the club deteriorated and led to the departure of several key players.
Not a one-time phenomenon.
In December 2022, Reggio Emilia went to an away game in Athens.
The 15 fans who accompanied her were savagely attacked minutes before the start of the match by the hard core of A.A.K. fans.
The local police conspicuously avoided intervening for several minutes, a situation that would repeat itself four months later.
"We were attacked out of nowhere. We had no prior relationship or historical rivalry with AAK. This was violent behavior by fans, the vast majority of whom are identified with the AAK soccer team, which attacked our fans for no reason because of a rivalry with another fan organization found In friendly relations with our fans' organization," a source in the Italian group shared in a conversation with Israel Hayom.
Crawford and Dawson.
As long as Holon doesn't fall, photo: FIBA website
Similar things were also told by the people of Jerusalem, except that in this case the background was different.
The basis for the violent behavior of AK fans stemmed from anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.
Officials in Jerusalem who were present at the same match in Athens said that they felt severe hostility.
"From the moment we entered the stand, they pointed a laser directly at our eyes, fired fireworks and some firecrackers directly into the stand, luckily they didn't hit anything. We talked to the police, their message was that they don't enter their stand because it's dangerous."
According to sources in Greek basketball, AAK's fans represent a problematic core in Athens.
"They are very poor and very violent. Most of them cannot afford to fly out of the country and certainly not accompany their team to away games. This is a high concentration of immigrants and some of them are Muslims, which increased their hatred for us," said a Jerusalem fan who was present at that game.
The crowd's hostility to Israel is also reflected in the influence on decisions the group is forced to make.
During the month of October, while Po'el Holon was looking for an alternative hall, it was precisely AAK Athens that surprisingly offered its help and invited the purple ones to stay at the Ulma.
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The publication of these things in the media led to great outrage among the fans, and the club's management had to fold and turn to the management of the Champions League with the demand to cancel the hospitality agreement that was about to be closed between the parties.
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