Other than the obvious political opinion of Beitar Jerusalem fans, do other clubs carry political ideals or beliefs? Are certain clubs aligned with political parties etc? just curious.
There is more than just the overall political opinions of Beitar Jerusalem supporters. 1. Asa was formed for students to raise the attention of them that they need to work their bodies as well as their minds. It stands for Irgun Sport Academi, Academic Sport Association in English. 2. Beitar was originally part of the Herut movement which was merged with the Likud in 1988, if memory serves me right. 3. Elitzur is a religious sporting organization that was formed by the Histadrut of Mizrahi workers. 4. HaGibor created in Europe by Jews from Czechoslovakia who were not allowed to join regular sport clubs. 5. Hakoah was part of the general Jewish movement in Europe to create Jewish social and sporting clubs because Jews were banned from playing in most clubs. Means in English, the Strength. 6. Hapoel was created by the Histadrut (Labor) party in Israel. 7. Hebraica Jewish sport organization found in South America and among South American communities in Israel. 8. Maccabi was always just an overall sport organization with no real political aspirations. Now none of these actually make sense since the clubs went private years ago. If supporters behave with any sort of preference to a political ideology it is just because they want to preserve a specific spirit of the club. They showed on Israel 10 a Palestinian supporter of Beitar who doesn't mind yelling at the matches, "Death to the Arabs".
Basically, the only two clubs today in the first division with political identification are Beitar Jerusalem (right wing), which you have mentioned, and Hapoel Tel-Aviv (left wing). The rivalry between them is considered the second biggest in Israeli football, after the derby between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Hapoel.
You could make the case that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are the ones that are boig supporters of the NT. all the Maccabi Ultras are also the NT ultras. Also, Maccabi Haifa have a big political connection to the environmentalists. Save the monkeys.
Interestingly they're not political at all, although you could've expected them to be. Their only connection to politics is when playing against Beitar, and even then they are usually not violent or sing any political chants, it comes from the Beitar side. They do however have sympathy from left wing football fans in Israel (especially when playing against Beitar) and have some significance being the only big Arab club. But they don't do much to show that. There is no national team ultras... Maccabi fans are not related to the NT more than any other fans.
You really rate Hapoel Tel Aviv versus Beitar Jerusalem as the second biggest rivalry in Israeli football? I agree that it is big, but I think it is comparable to Maccabi Haifa versus Beitar Jerusalem or Maccabi Haifa versus Maccabi Tel Aviv. All of these matches we named always gets a lot of media hype and fan support.
From my understanding, Maccabi TA fans are most involved in the NT support (although i could be wrong on this)
There is a big difference between the Hapoel-Beitar rivalry and the other ones you've mentioned: Hapoel and Beitar fans actually hate each other, for a number of reasons, mainly their politics. Hapoel fans consider a player a "traitor" if he moves to either Maccabi or Hapoel, Beitar fans consider a player so if he moves to Hapoel. Haifa and Beitar have nothing against each other, it's just a match between two big sides. As for the Haifa against Maccabi (TA) rivalry, it's more complicated: Haifa fans really hate Maccabi, but as much as Maccabi fans don't like Haifa, we (MTA) have no problem with players from Haifa, and we don't hate players if they move from our side to theirs, we only have problems with players moving to/from Hapoel. For example take Giovanni Rosso: When he moved from Haifa to Maccabi they said he was a traitor and we welcomed him, but when he moved back some of Haifa fans didn't want him and we just didn't care. However every Maccabi player who moves to Hapoel is deeply hated, and we won't even want him back - Omer Peretz (son of Vicky Peretz, a famous Maccabi player in the seventies) started playing football for Maccabi, moved to Hapoel when still young, and started his senior career there. He sucked up to Hapoel fans, but moved to Maccabi after his first season. He is the only player who won't get a chant from the supporters in the stadium, and even wanted to move away last summer because of the hatred towards him. It's true that Hapoel and Beitar fans are less fanatic in this aspect, perhaps because they acknowledge it's all about money either way, but Hapoel fans still hate Shimon Gershon and Beitar fans hate Yossi Abuksis from all their hearts. You can't find something like that in other rivalries between the four big clubs except for the derby, and for the only one-sided Haifa-Maccabi rivalry. Since the Hapoel-Beitar rivalry is two-sided, there's no question about it: It's the bigger one. There isn't any organised NT support. There was an attempt something like two years ago, and most people involved happened to be Maccabi supporters as far as I remember - however I think that not specifically from Ultras Maccabi or the 12th Player organisation - maybe that's why you think we are more involved. It didn't work out, and I don't think that if you do a survey in the next international match in Ramat-Gan the results will show a high percentage of Maccabi fans, or at least not higher than our percentage in the total football-fan-population. Indeed, many Maccabi fans I know (including ones involved in the "organised support") are pretty much indifferent to the NT.
I hate Maccabi Tel Aviv so much, my ex-girlfriend's brother is a supporter of theirs, it caused a lot of fights. I enjoyed watching them lose to that Turkish club in the UEFA Cup this summer.
Haifa fans are crap waving shitic banners at Ibrox was the straw breaking camel's back as long as my concern
I was there at the match and it was one middle aged idiot in the front row who bought all that crap earlier when we went on a tour of Celtic Park. He in no way, represents us.
the fact is some Haifa fans wear shitic tops on a week in and week out basis the kind Betis,sporting L PANA or Zhalgiris Kaunas BB fans wear some kinda "global green brotherhood" i assume i've seen a wanker waving the banner childishly taunting the TB. typical ape