The 2023/24 season with all its complexities brings good news for the Israeli players - they get significantly more minutes compared to last season.
At this point in the season where, it should be noted, the table is very unbalanced, there is an increase of almost 15% in the playing time of the local players.
Last season the Israelis got 40% of the minutes of the game.
This season, as of now, it is about 54%.
Israelis' average points per game,
There are two main reasons for this significant improvement.
The first reason is that most of the teams are playing with four foreigners this season, compared to more than half of the league teams who played with five foreigners last season, and the rest kept five in the squad for any trouble that might come.
This season only Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv are playing with five foreigners.
The main reason for the change is the outline of Sports Minister Miki Zohar, who significantly increased the financial grants for teams that will play with four foreigners.
The second reason for the increase in Israeli minutes is the war.
Because of the situation, the teams had difficulty completing the foreigner quota, and some did so only recently.
For example, Hapoel Galil Alyon recently added the third foreigner, while Ironi Kiryat Ata brought in the fourth foreigner just yesterday.
Until a few weeks ago, even Hapoel Beer Sheva did not play with a full quota.
Following the war, the level of some of the foreigners who arrived here is lower than usual, and this also contributes to the credit that the Israelis receive.
Sharon Abrahami.
Giving the Israelis credit, photo: Maor Alxalsi
As mentioned, the number of games played by the teams so far is not balanced and ranges from 7 to 13.
According to the data of the league administration website, it appears that in 9 teams out of the 13 Israelis play more than 50% of the game time.
Upper Galilee clearly leads the Israeli table with 73% of the playing time.
In second place is Maccabi Tel Aviv with 66%, although it should be noted that in two of its seven games Maccabi played only with Israelis due to the fact that the foreigners refused to come to Israel. It should also be noted that last season Maccabi led the table of minutes for Israelis with 52.4% of the game minutes.
Upper Galilee players.
You get a lot of minutes, photo: Maor Alxalsi
In third place is Hapoel BS with 62.5%. Kiryat Ata, Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Afula are next in line with 55% each. Herzliya did drop this season from a format of five foreigners, but it plays with four citizens in the squad. Hapoel Jerusalem played 10 games this season, two Of them only with Israelis, and the average of her minutes is 53%.
The worst figures in terms of Israeli participation are found in two of the last three in the league.
At Hapoel Eilat, last in the table, the Israelis play only 44.8% of the minutes of the game.
Only Hapoel Haifa, another unsuccessful team this season, gives the Israelis less time - 44.3%.
The Israelis of Eilat naturally give the lowest output of points in the league - only 22.7 points on average per game (29% of the total points scored by the team).
It is likely that there is a direct relationship between the output of the Israelis and the balance of victories of the teams.
Former Eilat coach Massimiliano Menti.
He did not give the Israelis minutes, photo: Udi Tsitiat
*The data in the article do not include the game between Bnei Herzliya and Kiryat Ata City that was held yesterday
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** In the data of the Israelis appearing in the article that we also cursed the naturalized players,
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