The underdogs’ revenge

Hapoel Katamon was set up as an alternative Jerusalem team but has extended its reach to helping the community.

By ALLON SINAI
Hapoel Katamon goalkeeper Amit Shemesh 521 (photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Hapoel Katamon goalkeeper Amit Shemesh 521
(photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
There are many adjectives one could use to describe Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem’s victory at Teddy Stadium two weeks ago. Dramatic, emotional and exciting are just three of them. However, Katamon’s 2-1 win over Hapoel Jerusalem in the country’s second division, the National League, was strange more than anything else.
After all, Katamon was set up in 2007 by fans of Hapoel Jerusalem who had despaired of the dysfunctional ownership duo of Victor Yona and Yossi Sasi. Unhappy with the way their beloved club was being run, these supporters decided to take matters into their own hands and branched off to form a new one.
In the six years since, Katamon has made a name for itself, proving that a soccer club can succeed even when owned and run by its fans. The club’s members even decided to start from scratch again in 2009 so they would have complete control over their fortunes, renaming the team Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem.
The team has been on the rise ever since, achieving promotion in three out of the past four seasons to advance to the National League.
The club has also always aimed to be more than just a soccer team, looking to enrich its community and contribute to the welfare of the city.
One of the initiatives with which it is doing so is the Neighborhood League.
Initially set up four years ago, the league aims to give a sports and educational framework for children aged 10 to 12 from different neighborhoods across Jerusalem, particularly those struggling with socioeconomic difficulties. Hundreds of boys and girls are part of the project, but inevitably it is the club’s senior team that makes all the headlines – perhaps the biggest of which was written two weeks ago.
During the summer, Katamon and Hapoel Jerusalem were tantalizingly close to finally signing an agreement to join forces for the 2013/14 campaign, but the deal ultimately fell through, meaning the two would face each other for the first time.
The showdown was one many Katamon supporters dreaded. After all, they had all been fans of the original Hapoel Jerusalem not that long ago and were now cheering against a team most of them still held dear.
Any sports fan will tell you that changing your allegiance from one club to another is something that is simply not done. However, Katamon’s faithful believe they are only helping to resurrect their adored team – hence the especially high level of emotion in the clash between the clubs.
Around 6,000 fans were on hand to watch the match, showing the potential support a single Hapoel Jerusalem club could attract were the two teams to merge.
After a goalless first half, Raz Shtein handed Katamon the lead in the 67th minute, only for Itamar Cohen to equalize seven minutes later. However, it was the Katamon fans who celebrated at the final whistle, after substitute Omri Ron scored the winner in the first minute of stoppage time to secure what most supporters considered a bittersweet triumph.
Katamon captain Shay Aharon perhaps best epitomizes the predicament every Katamon fan has surely faced at one stage or another.
Aharon was a Hapoel Jerusalem icon, playing for the club from the start of his career in 1997 until 2010, apart from two loan spells at Maccabi Petah Tikva and Hapoel Ashkelon. In the summer of 2010, he made what may have seemed to an outsider like just another professional decision, but was far more significant to him and thousands of soccer fans in the capital: The 35-year-old striker chose to leave Hapoel for Katamon, even though the team was only playing in a largely amateur league at the time.
He immediately became the ultimate hero for Katamon fans and ultimate traitor for the supporters of his former club, for which he had made 343 appearances over the years.
However, speaking after the 2-1 victory two weeks ago, Aharon put aside the feisty reception his former fans had handed him, and explained what he believed would be the greater good for both clubs.
“I can understand the hatred toward me,” he said.
“But Hapoel Katamon should be Jerusalem’s Hapoel club. Enough with capricious owners who have their own personal interests. This match had no real value from a professional standpoint. We all want to be part of a big, joint Hapoel team. The pain is felt by both sets of supporters who want to have a single Hapoel Jerusalem side. Katamon may have won the match, but we will only truly win when the clubs will merge.”
Neither of the teams seems set to gain promotion to the Premier League this season, with Katamon in eighth place after 12 matches and Hapoel Jerusalem in 12th, three points further back.
Hapoel Jerusalem coach Idan Tal echoed Aharon’s sentiment.
“I don’t know how this situation will be solved, but I know that there should only be one Hapoel Jerusalem,” said Tal. “This is bigger than me, and there are a lot of emotions involved. However, what is certain is that there is no place in Jerusalem for two Hapoel teams.”
Hapoel Jerusalem’s history stretches back to 1926, with the club’s greatest moment arriving in 1973 when it won the State Cup – its one and only title.
The team’s matches used to take place at a field in Katamon before moving to the YMCA Stadium and Teddy.
The derbies against Beitar Jerusalem were some of the more anticipated fixtures in past seasons, but haven’t been contested since Hapoel dropped to the second division in 2000.
Katamon’s victory two weeks ago was the most significant sign yet that the fan-run club has become a successful professional team.
However, what the match really proved was that there is a foundation in Jerusalem for a second club in the top flight to rival Beitar. That cannot be achieved, though, until Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem and Hapoel Jerusalem put past grievances aside and become a single club once more.
Perhaps the two teams and their fans needed to face each other in a match to truly understand the absurdity of their situation. But now that there is no longer any doubt, all sides should ensure that by the start of next season, there is one united Hapoel Jerusalem club on its way back to the main stage of Israeli soccer.