On the field and in court

During a season beset by scandal and legal woes, Beitar’s future looks bright.

By ALLON SINAI
Beitar Jerusalem (photo credit: ASAF KLIGER)
Beitar Jerusalem
(photo credit: ASAF KLIGER)
It was just two months ago that Beitar Jerusalem seemed to be heading for another lost season. Club owner Eli Tabib had just sacked coach Menahem Koretzki after another farcical chain of events, with the team in fourth place but just seven points above the relegation zone.
At the time, Tabib was awaiting sentencing for his conviction of assaulting a minor and of obstruction of justice, dating back to his days as Hapoel Tel Aviv boss.
Beitar looked set for another season of mediocrity at best, while its long-term future remained shrouded in doubt due to the uncertainty regarding Tabib’s status.
Fast forward two months, and it is all roses at Beitar. New coach Guy Levy has the squad playing better than the sum of its parts, and six wins from eight matches have not only secured the team’s place in the Premier League championship playoffs but have also got Jerusalem well placed to go on to qualify for European competition next season.
Beitar is already guaranteed to end the season in its highest position in five years. While a return to the glory days of Arkadi Gaydamak when the side won back-to-back championships (2007-8) seems out of the question for now, the future is once more looking bright. That hardly seemed likely on January 28. While Koretzki seemed adamant to overcome his rift with Tabib, the owner clearly had other plans and sent the coach packing, but not before making a mockery of himself and his club yet again.
Beitar had initially announced that Koretzki was fired due to the disagreements between the coach and the owner. However, just two hours later the club backtracked on its statement and said that Tabib, who was in Miami at the time, and Koretzki would speak in the morning to discuss the issues in question.
Shortly after their transatlantic conversation, Koretzki’s sacking became official once more and Levy, who had been fired by Bnei Sakhnin earlier this season, was almost immediately hired in his place. He took over the club when it was in fourth place but having recorded a mere five wins from 19 matches.
Tabib purchased Beitar only a year and a half ago, but Koretzki became the third coach to leave the club in acrimonious fashion under his watch, following in the footsteps of Eli Cohen and Roni Levy.
Guy Levy has been a resounding success so far, with Beitar beating Ironi Kiryat Shmona 2-1 on the road on Sunday for its fourth straight win.
Beitar strengthened its hold on fourth place and closed within four points of Kiryat Shmona in third, with nine matches remaining for each team in the season.
A third-place finish guarantees Europa League qualification for 2015/16, with fourth place also sufficient should either Maccabi Tel Aviv or Hapoel Beersheba win the State Cup and finish in first or second place in the league as they currently seem set to do.
“We need to continue and work hard in order to realize our potential,” said Levy after the win over Kiryat Shmona. “We are certainly thinking about reaching Europe; but to do that, we will need to continue to work.”
Every Beitar win likely increases the chances that Tabib will remain at the club despite the off-field events of recent weeks. Tabib was shot and lightly wounded outside his home in Kfar Shmaryahu in the early hours of March 1. Tel Aviv police said he had just driven up to his house and was sitting in his car when a man stepped off a motorcycle, walked up and fired three shots at him, with one bullet hitting Tabib in the hand. The gunman then ran to the waiting motorcycle, and he and the driver fled.
Tabib was taken to the hospital with light wounds to his hand and was released hours later. As he was leaving the hospital, he told reporters that he believed the shooting was linked to soccer, saying “These were people linked to soccer; there is no connection to business.”
Police aren’t as sure as Tabib what the motive was for the shooting or who the gunman was and said they haven’t ruled out any possible motive.
Even though he didn’t say so in as many words, Tabib initially implied that Hapoel Tel Aviv fans might have been behind the attack, a suggestion he later denied. He also insisted that such was the case in October 2013 when a hand grenade was stuck to the gate of his house and was meant to explode when he opened it, only to malfunction.
However, in that incident it soon became clear that the assailants were linked to organized crime and that Tabib was being warned after refusing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The suspects in that case, who are also believed to be behind the throwing of a stun grenade into his backyard in December 2011, were members of a well-known criminal organization and had been trying to extort money from Tabib.
It is believed that the mobsters wanted a cut from the transfer of striker Toto Tamuz from Beitar Jerusalem to Hapoel Tel Aviv in September 2010, when Tabib was a part owner of Hapoel, as well as from the sale of Beitar by Gaydamak in the summer of 2013. Tabib was the owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv until July 2012, leaving the club after continual protests by the supporters.
Just over a day after Saturday’s shooting, Tabib was sentenced to six months of community service by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. He was convicted last June of assaulting a minor and of obstruction of justice, being found guilty of attacking a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan with his bodyguard outside his home in March 2012 and erasing the footage of the incident from his computer after it was captured by his security cameras. Tabib plans to appeal the conviction and the sentence.
Due to the sentencing, Tabib’s ownership of Beitar will be reevaluated by the Israel Football Association.
However, assuming Tabib chooses to appeal, and with the appeal process expected to drag on for years, it seems unlikely that the IFA will make any final decision in the near future.
The bigger question is whether Tabib will decide to leave Beitar regardless. He said he would reconsider his future but, surprisingly, didn’t rush to announce he was done with Israeli soccer.
Strangely enough, Beitar’s season is set to be remembered as an unexpected triumph. There are still countless question marks regarding the club’s future, but winning makes any problem seem almost insignificant. Beitar has been doing quite a lot of that lately, hence the air of optimism around the club over recent weeks.
What looked like a season to forget has been transformed into a first step on the road back to prominence, and that is something no one would have predicted just a couple of months ago.