Nadene Goldfoot
Israel’s current FIFA ranking is 75, with its highest being 15, and its lowest 99. / Photo: Reuters Archive
Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club (Hebrew: מועדון כדורגל מכבי תל אביב; Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv) is an Israeli professional football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club.
Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as the HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association, it is the oldest football club in Israel. With the establishment of the city of Tel Aviv in 1909, the club changed its name to Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 1922, it became the first Jewish football club to participate in local competitions. The meaning of the name Maccabi forms an integral part of the character of the team, which took the Star of David as their logo to represent the Jewish people. Maccabi Tel Aviv have won more titles than any other Israeli club, winning 25 League Championships, 24 State Cups, 8 Toto (League) Cups, and 2 Asian Champion Club Tournaments before Israel were expelled from the AFC (Asian Football Club) in 1974.
The final straw that broke the camel's back came as a motion initiated by Kuwait in 1974 to expel Israel from
In November 2024, fans who traveled to Amsterdam after a match against Ajax were attacked after the game by assailants who shouted "Free Palestine" and hurled insults in Arabic as they targeted Israelis, 10 of whom were wounded in the attacks.-Wikipedia.
Holla said that after the match on Thursday evening, Maccabi supporters were walking through the city centre and "rioters" carried out "hit-and-run" attacks targeting at the Israeli supporters.
Holla says it was "extremely difficult" for police to prevent this kind of "violence" - even though officers were there "in great numbers".
The Amsterdam police chief adds officers decided to "assemble" Maccabi supporters and "protect them" - taking them to hotels in coaches. Peter Holla tells reporters in Amsterdam Maccabi supporters attacked a taxi and set a Palestinian flag on fire on Wednesday. He says trouble continued into the early hours of Thursday.
It's the Israelis who flew in to watch the game and wouldn't want to wind up being victims in a pogrom, which it turned out to be. It makes no sense that they started agitating Arabs of Amsterdam. The team has had Arab players !
Halsema, Amsterdam's mayor, has now handed over to Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla, who says the events of the last 36 hours have "really shocked" him. Israeli fans have seen some "fearful moments", he says, adding that some have been attacked and "abused in a terrible way".
Femke Halsema says she contacted anti-terror officials a couple of weeks before the Europa league fixture between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. "There were no concrete threats before this match between the players or the fans," she says. But it was recommended to take measures, the Amsterdam mayor says, so everything would go as "peaceful" and as "calmly as possible".Halsema adds: "We tried to do that."
One thing that the players face that others don't is that they are all facing IDF duty when it calls. 10 months ago, they faced another problem. As Qatar prepared to host 23 international football teams and defend the Asia Cup trophy on home soil, one country that would not be playing the continental tournament that begins on January 12 would be Israel. Despite being geographically located in Asia, football's governing body FIFA had not registered the country in FIFA's Asian Football Confederation [AFC]. Instead, it is registered in the Europe region.
FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which translates to International Federation of Association Football. FIFA is the international governing body for football (soccer), beach soccer, and futsal. It's responsible for organizing the World Cup, a quadrennial tournament that determines the men's world champion.
Before it was booted out from the federation in 1974, Israel had always been under pressure when it came to sports due to the lack of recognition to the Jewish state from its Arab neighbours — most of which are regulars in the Asian Cup. Anti-Semitism--even in playing soccer !
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maccabi_Tel_Aviv_F.C.
https://x.com/qumranqu/status/1854917561642586398
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cwyge1587e5t?page=2
https://www.playmakerstats.com/team/maccabi-tel-aviv
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