Hapoel Beersheba reestablished a three-point gap over Maccabi Petah Tikva and
the relegation zone on Monday night, a day after having it erased by a
controversial Israel Football Association High Court decision.
Yossi
Shivhon’s 13th-minute goal from the edge of the area after a solo effort was
enough to give Beersheba a 1-0 victory and all three points against Maccabi
Petah Tikva at a Vasermil Stadium buzzing with 11,000 outraged
fans.
Israeli soccer was plunged into turmoil on Sunday after the High
Court chose to partially accept Petah Tikva’s appeal and delay to next season
the three-point deduction it was handed the previous week following the violence
displayed by its employees after the match against Hapoel
Haifa.
Beersheba owner Alona Barkat resigned from her position in the
IFA’s secretariat in protest of the ruling that benefitted Petah Tikva, which
was run in the past by current IFA chairman Avi Luzon and is owned by his
brother Amos.
Earlier Monday, soccer legend Eyal Berkovic called for Avi
Luzon to quit and preached to fans to stop buying tickets to matches in a rally
he arranged outside IFA headquarters in Ramat Gan.
“I call on Avi Luzon
to resign,” Berkovic told around 250 soccer supporters who attended the rally
organized by the former Israel international.
“I don’t care if Maccabi
Petah Tikva gets relegated or not, but the Luzon family has brought this on
itself.
“The protest will only continue to grow. There were 300 people
here today, but next time there will be 5,000. At some stage, everyone will
understand that we are going to bring about a real change. Around 99 percent of
the people think as I do, but they are scared to speak up.
“I demand to
set up a new league administration which will run soccer without a conflict of
interests. Teams need to break away from the IFA. “The current system
doesn’t allow the IFA to correct the real problems plaguing Israeli soccer.”
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