Ivanir selected as next manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv

After sacking manager Avi Nimni last Tuesday, Goldhar methodically sieves through the different options and flies into Israel to meet two candidates.

By ALLON SINAI
Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Moti Ivanir 311 (photo credit: Adi Avishai)
Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Moti Ivanir 311
(photo credit: Adi Avishai)
He took his time, but Maccabi Tel Aviv owner Mitch Goldhar finally made his decision on Sunday, choosing Moti Ivanir as the team’s next coach.
After sacking manager Avi Nimni last Tuesday, Goldhar methodically sieved through the different options and flew into Israel on Saturday to personally meet the final two candidates, Ivanir and Roni Levy.
With three championships to his name as Maccabi Haifa coach, Levy clearly had the superior resume, but Tel Aviv’s Canadian boss eventually elected to go with a yellow-andblue icon, giving Ivanir his first chance at a big club.
Ivanir will be unveiled as coach on Monday after being handed a contract until the end of the season – with an option for another year – and will have the ideal opportunity to see the dysfunctional team he inherits when it hosts Betar Jerusalem at Bloomfield tonight.
Ivanir, 46, was one of Maccabi’s greatest players of the 1980’s, playing for the side between 1981 and 1990, apart from one season which he spent at Dutch club Roda.
After playing at six different clubs in the final six years of his career, Ivanir went into coaching in 1997, beginning his career at third-division Betar Beersheba.
He followed up his success at Beersheba with short tenures at Maccabi Netanya, Hapoel Beersheba, Hapoel Kfar Saba and Hapoel Ramat Gan, with his biggest accomplishment as a coach coming at Upper Nazareth where he guided the team to promotion to the Premier League before leading it to a fifth-place finish in its first ever season in the top flight (2004/05).
In 2006, Ivanir began coaching Israel’s under-17 team and after two years was promoted to guide the national under-21 side, leading it to a playoff for a place in Euro 2009.
After being replaced by Guy Luzon this past summer, Ivanir continued to work for the Israel Football Association as a scout for national team coach Luis Fernandez.
Now, however, he has been given the opportunity he has waited for to prove he belongs with the very best and only immediate success will do.
Greens move back into first place Maccabi Haifa is showing no signs of slowing down, defeating Maccabi Petah Tikva 3-1 at National Stadium in Ramat Gan on Sunday for its sixth straight win.
The three points take Haifa back above Hapoel Tel Aviv, with the Greens now on 40 points, two ahead of the reigning champion.
Vladimir Dvalishvili gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot in the 31st minute, but Sebastian Sansoni beat Haifa goalkeeper Nir Davidovich to a corner two minutes from the break to tie the score with a header.
Petah Tikva had its chances to take the lead, but couldn’t convert them, and Tomer Hemed put Haifa back in front in the 55th minute before Dvalishvili completed the scoring in stoppage time.