Israeli football has 2 teams in the Champions league(at least for the next 5 years) and now is the right time to get rid of the stupid foreign quotas. The way i understand it, Israeli teams are allowed to have 5 foreigners, yet teams they compete against in europe have many more foreigners. Look at Greece, they have at least 7 foreigners on each team and soome have up to 11. If Israeli football wants to get better, then it should allow at least 7 foreigners per team. This would promise at least one Israeli team in the Champions League every year. Imagine how much better Israeli teams would be if they had a couple extra players from Brazil, Argentina, Croatia or any other country with an abundance of football talent. A lot of people who like the foreign quotas point to the fact that young players would not get a chance to develop- this is a lie! Young Israelis will play, if they are good enough. But you would also have the National League as a place to develop young players. I would allow the National League to not allow any foreigners if the Premier League would allow at least 7 foreigners. Another thing that the pro-foreign quota people point to is that they say Israelis want to see Israelis play and not foreigners. This is also false. Look at England, teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal have up to 20 foreigners on their teams. There are only about 7-8 English players on their teams. Do the English fans care? No they don't becuase they want their teams to be the best they can be even if they don't have a lot of englishmen paying. Besides, wanting to see your countrymen play, is what national teams are for, and what the World Cup and Euro is for.
Israel does not need to be part of the EU or anything like that.... I am always supportive of Israeli players abroad, but i am also supportive of the leauge. If we give up our true players, than our leauge won't go anywhere and many of our players wont get a full chance. Like it or not, nations like Bosnia are proud to have players in Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. The fact that they hardly play means alot, but they still appreciate the fact that there players are benchwarmers...... Israel, in the past has had players who lead not only the team, but sometimes the leauge. What Revivo did in Turkey was amazing. Benayoun is turning eyes in Spain.......... Berkovic was #2 in Assist, just below of Henry a couple of years back in Man City..... If we have more players abroad, we'll neglect our prospects, and our leauges....balance both foreign legions and domestic leauge!
They can still have 7 foreigners. They don't have to wait for the EU. If they do well in the next 4 years, then Israel might get 1 team automatically in the group stage and 1 team in 3rd round qualifier. I understand that EU teams by law don't have quotas but there are non-EU teams, like in Switzerland that have a lot of foreign players. for example Grasshopers Club: Goalkeepers 1 Fabrice Borer 24.12.1971 SUI 18 Peter Jehle 22.01.1982 LIE Defenders 2 Fernando Gamboa 28.10.1970 ARG 5 Rijat Shala 26.09.1983 SUI 14 Roland Schwegler 03.02.1982 SUI 16 Pascal Castillo 16.07.1976 SUI 23 Stephan Lichtsteiner 16.01.1984 SUI 24 Kim Jaggy 14.11.1982 SUI 31 Henri-Georges Siqueira 15.01.1985 SUI Midfielders 4 Feliciano Magro 02.02.1979 SUI 7 Mihai Tararache 25.10.1977 ROM 17 Christoph Spycher 30.03.1978 SUI 19 José Chatruc 09.11.1976 ARG 21 Reto Ziegler 16.01.1986 SUI 26 Aleksandar Mitreski 05.08.1980 MKD 28 Marco Lopes 28.05.1984 CPV 32 Manuel Bühler 01.09.1983 SUI 34 Marc Luetolf 24.06.1987 SUI 35 Veroljub Salatic 14.11.1985 SUI Forwards 8 Eduardo 05.09.1980 BRA 9 Mladen Petric 01.01.1981 CRO 10 Ionel Gane 12.10.1971 ROM 20 Alfred Embefe 13.01.1983 NGA 25 Richard Nuñez 16.02.1976 URU 27 Femi Opabunmi 03.03.1985 NGA 33 Fabio Digenti 06.03.1983 SUI This is a non-EU team and they have 11 foreigners. If its ok for swiss teams to have 11 foreigners why is it not ok for Israeli teams to have 11 foreigners.
To keep the best Israeli players are hard because if they are wanted in England or Spain they will go becuase those are the two best leagues in the world. But it would be easier to keep Israeli players if The Israeli league was respected. The league has been improving but now is not the time to see that you are happy the way things are. You have to be ambitious. I realize that Israel will never compete with leagues like England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, becuase Israel is too small, but that dosen't mean that Israel can't compete with leauges in Greece, Portugal, and Scotland. In the future, I see Israel as a top 10 league in Europe, where they would get 1 team in the group stage for the Champions league. The only way to achieve this is by adding more foreigners. Israel has good football players, but there are too few of them. This will also benefit the National team because players will play with good international players instead of average Israeli players. And those players will be better becuase of that.
It doesn't matter if Israeli clubs were allowed 11 foreign players per club because they don't even have enough money to get five really good foreignors for each club let alone seven.
Im not talking about Bnei Yehuda getting 7 foreigners, im talking about Maccabi Haifa, Macc TA, Hap TA, Bt Jerusalem- the big clubs that play in Europe. The teams that have a chance to qualify for the Champions League. I agree that they don't have enough money to get 7-11 foreign players that are all good, but all that matters is that they are better than the average Israeli players.
Like i said... you have to balance the leauge... Foreign players are good, but they cost a lot of money. Israel needs to show that it can succeed with a leauge of about 75-90% Israeli Nationals and 10-25% foreigners. Once we fill the gap for foreigners, the only way Israeli teams will get attention from scouts is from the foreign players... Our Youth system will be corrupted and no chance of success for Israeli players abroad. I am confident that Israel does not throw israeli players out the door fast, cause with the help of a couple of names, we can easily have 20+ players, playing in many divisions, both big and small teams...but we try and manage to get players to play and become really good.... We can have players playing in deportivo and Udinese...but whats the point? they will be lucky to get 20 minutes on the field the whole season.... We need to rest assured that only the finest will come out of israel. And when it does.....it can show that Israeli players are good. Israeli teams are Israeli teams and not Grasshopper F.C #2...We need to show that these teams can hoist to stardom without having more than 5 foreigners on the squad...
Beitar Jerusalem! WTF? I guess if being around the relegation area of Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) you have a good chance of making the UEFA Champions League.
Re: Beitar Jerusalem! Even with a couple of slumpy seasons doesn't mean nothing...... In most of the seasons in the spade of the 90's, Beitar did participate in many UEFA matches and european events...... I think with a re-organization of the team, the structure and management, Beitar can do good. Perhaps, next year!! As they always say.... NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM
I am much more skeptical about a team with a pay roll of a couple of thousand dollars to make anything out of any season. Sell the club to some rich zionist Jew. How about Marc Cuban from the NBA?
Hardly play? Hasan Salihamidzic is often-times considered the heart and soul of Bayern Munich. Maybe it is jealousy that no Israeli player can achieve a dream like playing for Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. Elvir Baljic was the biggest signing in Real Madrid history when he signed. Unfortunetely his stay was plagued with injuries and now he plays for Galatasaray. Am I proud of these two guys? Hell yeah I am. They are two unbelievable talents that no Israeli player can even compete with. When you have one player playing, scoring in, and winning the champions league final, then you can say something. Until then, keep your ignorant views to yourself.
Lets not go nuts with Hasan Salihamidzic. I may be an American who knows little about football but don't you have to score some goals to be considered a good offensive player? He scored only 5 goals in 45 games. Thats only 1 goal every 9 games. Besides he has been injured multiple times, suggesting that he is either soft, brittle or not tough enough. You say he is the heart and soul of Bayern Munich, may be so, but he's still a dissapointment from what he was supposed to be. As for Baljic, he has been another dissapointment even to your admission. So why would Israeli's feel jealous of these two players. Im an American and I'm not even jealous of these two players.
Darn right... im saying that the Bossman rule goes into effect. Bosnia is part of the rule and israel is not...so it makes it difficult to purchase Israelis and bring them to teams in Europe. If the rule was in effect in Israel, then there would be 20-30 israelis playing abroad. Not in the best leauges or teams, but there would be a huge intrest for them.... with Hasan Salihamidzic, ya...he is good..but then again...remember... He is a product of the Bosnian Leauge....is the bosnian leauge competitve or as balanced to have teams reaching the final 1/8 of UEFA or CL? What about the National Team? Does it effect Hasans playing? i mean, look in Georgia's team.... they have Kaladaze and he is good...but i wouldn't count that much on the leauge nor the nt.. back to the topic.. Israel balances or tries to balance both Foreign players and Domestic players.. I am confident that israel sends the best to europe and still has a handful of great players (in Mac Haifa, Beitar, Hap. Tel Aviv, Mac Tel Aviv...)... Bosnian is a very competitive team, but the question is, did they balance there domestic leauge (cause i don't recall any major teams in UEFA/CL) and is there NT good...cause last time we played them was in WC 2002 and many of there welcoming fans, booed our National Anthem
Hmm...what about a foreigner vision? Yes,I'm Brazilian.I know what I'm talking about.Our league have two spots for foreigners.TWO.And Brazil have 5 World Cup...well... At the same hate,we have Brazilian players everywhere...Russia,Spain,Turkey,Israel,Japan,Korea,Mexico. For me,Israel have conditions to have a better place in Europe,like Turkey.But at first,what Israel want?Growing players for National or better clubs in Europe?You can't think about National Squad when you open the doors for foreigners players like that.Ok,my state only here have 6 divisions and think 2nd it's better then some European 1st divisions...so we have new players all the time.Israel,unlucky,have only 2 National div. and it's more difficult to appear new talents.Putting 7 spots...MORE difficult then before... Anyway,sometimes is what we call "tradicion".Brazil have "tradicion to find good players,Israel not."But that's happen because we give guts to little boys about football.So,if an Israel squad goes up and started to appear more...more guys will start to play and more talents will appear...that's true. Israel can open the doors now.It's time...and after make up good players,just close it again.
You should follow football a little more closely, my friend. Salihamidzic was used during much of the season as a Right Defender, when Willy Sagnol went out with an injury. He was also used as a left wing and right wing. None of Bayern's wingers score more than Salihamidzic... that was the job of Makaay and he did a great job. To call Salihamidzic a disappointment is hilarious. Roberto Carlos after some Champions Leage match vs. Bayern flat-out said that Salihamdzic is one of the best, if not the best right wing in the world. Oh yeah, and to the other guy: When did Bosnia play in the WC in 2002?? I must've been sleeping through the whole thing because I remember that they didn't qualify.
Im not the other guy... im slim shady...... I was gonna edit and say Qualify, but i typed too fast and i can't edit my post after it was made... My apoligies... but, you gapped out on what i said.. You can have 1-4 players from bosnia who have talent and i truly belive that number can even be a dozen, but the thing i am trying to point out is that is this 1-4 stars in bosnia being managed good? theres 3 factors that i came up with that you and everyone must understand... Its the National Team, the Domestic Leauge and the Foreign Legions..you gotta balance all of that.. if not, your team(s) will go sour.. Israel tries at its best to balance all 3. Its hard and at some points fustrating, but we still manage to do it.... Our foreign legioners are no more than 10 players and most of them don't go to the top teams, but they do become leaders and people to watch. We just don't go and throw everyone in Europe and make them benchwarmers, thats when the NT comes in place and thats when you have friendlies and qualifiers and then your players a half a year ago who were a gem are trash..Israel does not want that. Foreign teams love's new players from abroad and they love to sometimes screw with there ability to play...... Our Domestic team is also competitve, they are competitve in the leauge and they are competitve in UEFA. Staring out in 1992, we have gone from nothing to 1/8 FInals of UEFA cup and CL participants.... And i can honestly say that we have a very stable Domestic leauge and viable (not big) foreign legioners.... I wish all the best for Bosnia in WCQ 06'
Good morning I am in this forum from one day. I like very much Israel and I would like to play in Israel. I am from Italy and I played in some different nations. I tryed to find a contact, a possibility but I did not find this. Are You able to give me one possible contact? I thank You for Your answer. With respect A
after doing research about the teams in Euro 2004 this is what i found about the number of players of each team that play abroad(outside their country): Croatia 22 Denmark 21 Sweden 20 Czech 18 Holland 17 France 15 Switzerland 13 Latvia 12 Bulgaria 12 Greece 8 Portugal 7 Russia 3 Germany 3 England 2 Spain 0 Italy 0 I while ago i had said that you didn't need Israeli players to play abroad for the national team to be good, and that it would be baad for Israeli club football. I now know i was wrong. But only partly. I now think that having Israeli players playing abroad will be good for the national team, but it is not the only way to get Israel to qualify for the World Cup and Euro 2008. Another way is to get Israeli footballers better conditioned than their European counter parts. I see teams like Holland who have 17 players abroad yet they still have a respectable League. I believe this can be accomplished in Israel. But for that to be done Israel must first hire a foreign coach for the national team- someone from Sweden, Germany, Croatia, or Norway. The new coaching staff will teach the Israeli players how to work harder. Another thing is that the best Israeli talent should play abroad but only for the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and other leagues. There is NO point for talented Israeli to play in the second division in any country, becuase it is a waste of time. I would rather have them play for a Champions league team like Maccabi Haifa or Maccabi Tel aviv instead of some second division team in Spain. For the Israeli league, foreign coaches should be hired. I don't know why Israeli clubs "recycle" the same coaches every year. Coaches should be brought in from Europe to manage "lazy" Israeli players. The foreign quota should be raised from 5 to 7 players, and in a deal with the Israeli players union I would abolish foreigners from the National League. ANother thing is that the league should have only 10 teams- for next season have 3 teams relegated and 1 team promoted. The next thing that should be done is to renovate old stadiums or build new ones. You can't be respected if you play in a stadium that is falling apart and built 40 years ago. Cities that should have new stadiums are Beer Sheva, Netanya, Sakhnin and Raanana/Hertzilya. The cities that should have their old stadiums renovated are Ramat Gan(National Stadium), Petach Tikva, Kiryat Shmona and Ashdod. I also think that Bnei Yehuda should use Bloomfield Stadium and Maccabi Nazareth should use Green Stadium in Upper Nazareth. For 2004/05 Bloomfield- Macc TA, Hap TA, Bnei Yehuda Kiryat Eliezer- Macc Haifa, Hap Haifa, Bnie Sakhnin(should have a new stadium for 2005/06) Teddy- Beitar Jerusalem, Hap Jerusalem(2nd div.) Petach Tikva- Macc PT, Hap PT Vassermill(should build new stadium)- Hap. Beer Sheva, Macc. Beer Sheva(3rd Div.) Green Stadium- Hap. Naz illit Ashdod(should renovate old stadium)- Ashdod
another thing...... cities should turn over ownership of stadium to the club that play in them. for example- Teddy should be owned by Beitar Jerusalem, but Hap. Jerusalem must be able to use it. Bloomfield should be split between Macc. TA and Hap. TA. What this will do is that cities will save money and clubs will be in a better financial position becuase the stadiums are worth a lot of money.
This is a good list AMFan, Thanks for the info.... As you can see, powerhouses in Europe are protective of there players. Players in Italy, Spain and England are being played in there home country? Why? Cause there home country is a Power House Leauge and is very profitable to stay. Ofcourse, someone like beckham who goes to spain is explainable, only to know that sooner or later, he will be back home. But as you can see Croatia's players are very much spread out. 22 players is quite alot! I don't have much fondness of Croatian football. I think they have no more than 2-4 teams who are exceptionally good. The rest are so...so...teams like Hadjuk Split and Dinamo Zagreb are good. But then again, you see how far Croatian clubs will go in CL and UEFA cup. Right now, Israel does not need to focus on Euro 08. It needs to focus on World Cup 06. I think our next opponents will be hard. The hardest group that we had for a tournament since our 'group of death' in WC qualifieirs 1994 which featured France, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Bulgaria. That was difficult IMO and i think our WC Q 06 group is even more difficult. i agree with you on that point. Having Israelis abroad is good. But abusing it like Croatia is not a good thing. I don't mind having players play abroad. I just don't want talent to slip away from Israel's hand. I want Israeli leauge to make Israeli stars. Not to make the Israeli Leauge a vacant spot for Foreign players. We gotta do more to make our youth system reliable and our foreign players in Israel, still a hot commoditity, but not something that European Scouts would go for when they are coming to Israeli Club games for CL and Uefa cup! The thing with a new coach is in the lines of pro and con. Pro is that you got a coach with experience, like the coach that we had between 1999 and 2002, Richard Moeller Neilsen. He was excellent. He was from Denmark..He was well spoken and had a good vision for where Israel should be and what israel should do in order to make it into the WC or Euro. He was close to getting us into WC 2002, if only a stupid late goal vs. Austria made us lose in our own home..... But either way, i praised Neilsen. The thing that wasn't good is that, he wasn't aware of Israel's Leauge or if he was, he was ignoring the gems of the Leauge. He might have ignored about 5-10 players who had potential. He always put Revivo, Berkovic, Nimny, Banin and Davidovich (then awatt) in the team, even if they weren't playing well. That is because he didn't know or understand the leauge to well. it is good to have a foreign coach with experience, but you must understand that a foreign coach does not know how to speak with the players and is considered a stranger in a strange land when it comes to the Israeli Domestic Leauge. We also had a British Coach in the 80's by the name of Jack Munsell (sp?) I really don't think it is a wise move. The odd 1 or 2 teams would be good, but just like my comment in the National Team coach, the Coach must be from the domestic leauge, cause he is more familiar with the competition and the players. A foreign coach is good, for teams in UEFA cup or CL, but overall, i don't think he would be a benefit to a team who wants to suceed in both European glory and Domestic. But I am very lenient. I kinda see that one for the Domestic leauge as a good idea. Perhaps a foreign coach has loyal players who are good. These loyal players usually quit a club when a new coach comes in. Perhaps if a good player from lets say Norway comes to play in Israel with his beloved coach, than he might make sparks fly. Both in domestic and also in European competion. Well said AMFan! There are some stadiums being renovated or tear down to build a new stadium in the coming years. Netanya has the oldest stadium. I think that stadium was made in the 1940's or so and it only seats under 6000 people. I know there getting some British Stadium architechts to build a Stadium for Netanya. As well as one in Beer Sheva. There was talks to have the Olympic games (no joke) in Israel and if so, Teddy stadium would have been renovated from 21,000 seater to 45,000 seater. The Ramat Gan National Stadium would have gone from 42,000 to 85,000 or 90,000 seater. But that was a long shot. Right now, since Shaknin success in the leauge. Arik Sharon is planning to help build a stadium for them with the help of the government. Perhaps a small stadium. No and innovative...just like the newest stadium in Israel, the Funland (or funpark) stadium in Rishon Le Zion which accomadates Ironi Rishon Le Zion and was built in 1993. Bnei Yehuda has there own stadium called the "Schuna" Petach Tikva would be a nice change to get renovated..but the fans have gotten so used to it by now... Kiriat Eliezer as well as Teddy seem to be a hub for regions to play in. Eliezer accomadates the north/galilie and Teddy has most of Jerusalem area..... I wonder what happened to the YMCA stadium? Was there house being built there?
I have a tough feeling that Cities in Israel will relinquish assets like stadiums. It is possible though, but hard to predict. I don't think Israeli teams are wealthy enough to own there own stadium. If they did, each team in Israel would have had a stadium already, just like many do in Spain, France and England, with respect to some clubs sharing them... It is a possiblility, but its a wide one and i think its not on the deck right now. what is on the deck is for Israeli clubs to raise there budget, invest in the youth, succeed in europe and gain some foreigners on the way there