The season in the Premier League will end this coming Saturday with the lock cycle of the top playoffs, meanwhile earlier today (Wednesday) Maccabi Tel Aviv faced disciplinary proceedings for the events of the stormy match against Maccabi Haifa at Sami Ofer last week, when the decision on the punishment is this – a fine of 20 thousand NIS 8th for the club, when Parfa Gaiagon was suspended from three games, including receiving a fine of NIS 3,500.
As you may remember, the yellow club was on trial for fan rioting, when Parfa Gaiagon, the team’s midfielder, was also on trial for insulting referee Oral Greenfeld, as written in the refereeing report of the match as part of the 34th round of the top playoffs. Regarding the punishment, Parfa was absent from the game against BS, he will not play against Ashdod and will have to stay out for another game next season, if of course he stays in the Premier League.
In the decision of the judge Giora Landau it was written, among other things, regarding the group: “It has been prosecuted countless times this season for the behavior of its fans, this time it was not possible for her to locate the wrongdoers, according to her since the network that was deployed made it difficult for the cameras to locate the site”, regarding Gaiagon it was written: “With all the regret for the racist calls towards him During the game, this does not justify such behavior towards the match referee.”
The course of the discussion on the riot of the yellow crowd
The judge, attorney Giora Landau, asked at the beginning of the hearing: “Did the events happen?”
Maccabi Secretary General Idan Alter replied: “We do not deny that there was an incident, in our case the fans set off a yellow smoke grenade and two more flares in the second minute and the seventy-fifth minute.
Landau: “The observer’s report does not indicate fireworks.”
Alter continued: “We have permission from the security company we contacted and the cameras in Sami Ofer to locate the individuals who lit the flares and bring them to justice, because of the networks that have been installed, identification is impossible.”
Landau: “Will we come to an understanding that in order to prevent flares we will have to play without an audience? Because of the networks it is impossible to identify?”.
Alter: “Yes, it makes the work of identification difficult.”
Landau: “It used to be that you would come to the stand with your own cameras and then that prevents the network thing.”
Alter replied: “The photographers were never inside the stands.”
Landau: “Even from the angle of your photographers, they fail to recognize?”
Alter: “We do not underestimate the event and it is clear to us that pyrotechnics is not something that should happen, it is a small amount of flares that did not cause the game to be stopped and had no effect.”
Landau: “Didn’t the game stop even in the smoke grenade?”
Alter: “No, as I said the means were not thrown onto the field and this is a relatively insignificant incident compared to the incident that happened later in the game and in light of that we would be happy to fine.”
Landau: “We are coming to the end of this season on the belly and we all hope that next season will look different in terms of fan behavior, and what happened in Netanya is the proof. We dropped points to Hapoel twice on flares and the Maccabi Haifa fans showed afterwards that it is also possible to celebrate a championship without flares.”
Alter: “Probably they didn’t take pictures, but I heard from my security that they did.”
Landau: “The reports will come and we’ll see.”
Alter: “I hope you’re done with us for this season.”
Landau: “The fact that we finished the season without injury is already lucky.”
The progress of the discussion regarding Parfa
Landau: “The referee’s report indicates that the player approached and shouted what sounded like curses in all kinds of languages, then when the refereeing team came down, the player approached, threw a bottle of water on the floor and marked Ben *Vena, later his teammates pushed him away.”
Landau: “Do you remember that?”.
Alter the player’s name: “First of all, this is a foreign player who has been playing in Israel since the age of 18 for four years.
Landau: “That means he understood the basic curses in Hebrew.”
Alter: “I would like to point out that the offense in question has mitigating circumstances as we see it since during the game racist comments were heard towards him from the stands of the home team fans. I’ve said it once before, I doubt if anyone here suffered racist curses during a game.”
Landau: I understand everything and unfortunately it happens a lot, and in last week’s discussion the columns even came up in the discussion in this context of SC”.
Alter: “It’s not the first time, by the way, and he doesn’t usually respond.”
Landau: “I don’t know if you read what we wrote after BS-Haifa, but we touched on it there and there a player came up and tried to confront the person who called him racist names, I understand and no matter how threatening it is, we expect a professional player to behave accordingly. It’s horrible and terrible and forbidden, it’s the only offense in our regulations that we punish, in basketball they also extended it to curses, with us they extended it to the word Nazis, but after I said it, the referee is not guilty.”
Alter: “It’s not a claim, it’s clear to us.”
Alter: “It happens a lot and it doesn’t get any easier. I can’t judge but one and I can tell you that he was hurt and hoped that the judging team would do something.”
Landau: “There are known cases in the world where the player approached the judging team and told them.”
Alter: “It’s clear to us, but Parfa is more introverted. The expulsion penalty has already been imposed and we think that is enough.”
Landau: “In any case, not on the judge.”
Alter: “Obviously, and maybe we should have stopped it on the field.”
Daniel Asraf, who also represents the team from Tel Aviv, added: “In the judge’s report, he states things that sound like curses, so you can’t tell.”
Landau: “I’m assuming that he didn’t say goodnight in a foreign language, you can also tell by the tone of voice.”
Asraf replied: “But this does not provide a basis for conviction because it does not prove the claim, regarding the Ben *Vena curse the player does not deny and he knows it is wrong, he experienced it the whole game and went down to the dressing room in a storm of emotions. We think that in this case, given the sensitivity of the matter, it is possible to use discretion and sensitivity.”
Landau: “We are in a very sensitive period with regard to racism, but the judges also had a really difficult season. We want to preserve what the judges had in recent years.”
Asraf replied: “We understand what you are saying, but we also need to see the player, who never came to court for insulting a referee, and in this specific case he took what happened hard, the Red will teach him next time not to do that.”
