Hapoel Be'er Sheva's victory only highlighted the grim situation of Israeli football
Success in Europe is bittersweet when realizing there is little chance of seeing matches in Israel soon. At least participation remains a diplomatic achievement.
The day before yesterday, in the 37th minute of Hapoel Be'er Sheva's match against Red Star Belgrade, when Zahy Ahmed scored and celebrated in front of the silent stands in Szombathely, Hungary, Shino Zuaretz, chairman of the Football Association, imagined the same goal at Turner Stadium in front of tens of thousands of fans.
"The stands would have flown in the air. There is nothing to say, Turner has its own intensity. It stings to see the empty stands in Hungary," he describes.
Earlier, when the game started, I asked Zuaretz on WhatsApp about attempts to bring football back to Israel. "There are no attempts," he texted back. "It's sad that it's like this," I told him at halftime. "Because I am a realist and I know what situation I am in," he replied. "Understand, I am in daily conversations with UEFA officials and talking to presidents of associations from other countries. I have one bullet in the chamber, and I will fire it only when we are sure. You have to be smart."
A new season is upon us, and tonight Beitar Jerusalem will host Austria Vienna in Romania, Maccabi Tel Aviv will host CSKA Sofia in Georgia, and Hapoel Tel Aviv will host Katowice in Hungary. If you ask senior officials of the Association, it is appropriate to lower expectations. The very fact that Israeli teams are still part of international competitions is an achievement. The fact that the World Cup was in the USA, and Gianni Infantino was close to Donald Trump, saved us. But the World Cup is over, and the wars in the Middle East and the hostile attitude towards Israel remain.
The current status quo, they add in the Association, is not necessarily to our detriment. The fact that teams from other countries cannot come to Israel due to security arguments prevents them from not wanting to come here for other reasons that paint us as lepers. I ran a scenario with the head of the Association's public relations, Shlomi Barzel: all our war fronts are closing, travel warnings are fading, and airlines are returning.
"And yet, it's not like you flip a switch and football returns," he notes.
The real battle will start then. There is Norway, Ireland, Turkey. There are association presidents who hug Zuaretz officially, but will act differently due to public opinion. "As of now, the security argument saves us from political onslaught," Barzel says. Twice in recent years, the Association was close to requesting the return of games to Israel, but eventually gave up, including after Operation "Lion's Roar".
So these are the facts: three Israeli teams will play tonight at three different points on the globe, and we will call it home. This will not change until the end of the season. But as Zuaretz says: "You have to make lemonade out of a lemon."
