How well have Maccabi Ahi Nazareth and Bnei Sakhnin been received in the Ligat Ha'al? Has there been much in the way of sectarian tensions at their matches? I read an article about how soccer is one of the few arenas in which the Arab minority feels totally Israeli. Do these clubs have good grounds and players and a chance to have a permanent presence in the top flight of Israeli footbal?
Nazareth are solidly in last place and will most likely get relegated. Bnei Sachnin arent doing terrible, and are in 6th place. From what I understand there is a lot of Arab support for Hapoel Tel Aviv, one of the traditional powers. Both Nazareth and Sachnin have tiny stadiums(under 2,000 capacity). I dont know much about sectarianism at matches. You would have to talk to one of the Israelis here.
actually, Bnei Sakhnien is doing better than expected. They have had acouple wins over big name teams. Although they are in 6th place, as of today, they would qualify for the top six playoff phase of the season.
There is a couple of more Arab clubs that are around israel. There is Hapoel Lod (Arab?), Kfar Kaka, and Kfar Quasem... This is one of the events that makes Arabs and Israelis come together, since there is alot of israeli players and coaches who are in arab teams and there has been many arab players who played in Israeli Football clubs... even some arab-israelis have participated in the National Team games such as Walid Badir and Narjwan Ghayrib
Israeli Arab Clubs Much of Bnei Sakhnin's success is due to an excellent signing. They signed Brasilian Gabriel Lima from Bulgarian Profesionalen futbolen klub ''Levski 1914'' AD (aka Levski Sofiya). He has played 13 league matches so far and scored 6 goals and assisted 4 times. Bnei Sakhnin's success on the pitch has catapulted Israeli Arab players to the main stage. Abbas Suan who has played his whole life for Sakhnin clubs (Hapoel Sakhnin & Bnei Sakhnin), was recently called up national team manager Avraham Grant for a training camp at the Magic Sunrise Hotel in Eilot. The only real problem for Bnei Sakhnin was when they played at Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem. About twenty Beitar Jerusalem fans were arrested for screaming threats at Bnei Sakhnin fans. Only five were arrested from the Sakhnin side for also making threats. Maccabi Ahi Nazareth is a different story. From the start of the season they has three points taken for breaking the budget rules. The minute they gained promotion to Ligat ha'Al (Premier League) they sold all their regular Israeli Arab players and bought Israeli Jews. This really hurt their fan support among the Israeli Arabs. These were the same players who had got the team to the premiership in the first place.
Wow this just happened, chairman of Maccabi Ahi Nazareth, Eskander Hadad, has resigned. Replacing him will be Israeli Arab business man, Amir Jabrin.