Police: Soccer federation’s steps against fans not enough

Israel police angry over “inadequate” sanction of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans who chanted slogans celebrating death of Haifa police chief Lt.-Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Haifa Police Chief Dep.-Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer 311 (photo credit: Yaakov Levy, Northern District Police)
Haifa Police Chief Dep.-Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer 311
(photo credit: Yaakov Levy, Northern District Police)
The Israel Police publicly scolded the Israel Football Association on Sunday, over the “inadequate” sanction of Hapoel Tel Aviv, two of whose fans chanted slogans celebrating the death of Haifa police chief Lt.-Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer in December’s Mount Carmel forest blaze.
Tomer suffered burns over 90 percent of her body when she tried to rescue others from the flames.
Last week, the IFA’s disciplinary court fined Hapoel Tel Aviv NIS 20,000 and handed it a suspended sentence to play a match without a crowd as punishment for abusive chants shouted by the two fans.
I
n a letter sent to IFA chairman Avi Luzon, the police’s chief of operations, Cmdr. Nissim Mor, said the measures were “an inadequate expression of the severity of the conduct of the fans.” Mor said the punishment “lacked a message of deterrence that could influence the fans and the team’s management.”
He called for an assertive message to “teams and fans regarding norms of conduct and the severe results of crossing red lines.”
Last week, the Haifa District Court also banned the two fans from attending any soccer games for the rest of the season, thereby accepting a police appeal against a previous punishment that had banned the fans for 15 days.