Committee urges police to establish sports task unit
All BSL arenas will be equipped with close-circuit TV's and an anti-violence agency will be created.
By ALLON SINAIHapoel firecracker 224.8(photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
All BSL arenas will be equipped with close-circuit TV's and an anti-violence agency will be created, it was announced Monday.
The Tzur Committee, headed by former major general David Tzur, was set up after the fire-cracker incident last month that saw Malha security guard Yoav Glitznshtein lose two fingers.
The committee also recommended that the police will establish a special desk that will specialize in all sports related matters and that all the league's arenas will become all-seaters.
"The BSL has gone through a trauma and we will do all we can to renew the fans confidence," BSL chairman Avner Kopel said at a press conference. "We will do all we can to implement the committee's recommendations."
All the committee members stressed on Monday that the situation will not improve should the Judicial System continue to be lenient towards unruly fans.
"As long as the Judicial System continues to take these matters lightly we will be in a state of distress," MK and committee member Ronit Tirosh said. "I hope that from now on the courts punishment will act as a deterrent."
Tzur added: "I'm convinced that should all our recommendations be implemented we will have a much better chance to prevent these sorts of events."
Meanwhile, Hapoel Holon, which was sentenced by an Israel Basketball Association tribunal to play eight homes games in front of empty stands for its fans involvement in the fire-cracker incident, defeated Ironi Ashkelon 98-78 on Monday night.
Holon, which had lost its previous two BSL games, was led by P.J. Tucker and Malik Dixon, who scored 18 points each, with Moran Rot and Eric Campbell adding 15 and 14 points respectively. Cory Carr and Dror Davidi each scored 15 points for the hosts.
Six straight points by Tucker midway through the first period capped an 8-0 run and gave Holon an 18-10 lead. Dixon's three-pointer with one-and-a-half minutes remaining in the quarter extended the visitors margin to 15 points (29-14) and Hapoel led 31-19 after 10 minutes.
Yariv Yatzkan's basket from beyond the arc with four minutes remaining in the half brought the hosts within four points (38-34), but a 12-2 quarter ending Holon run gave the team a comfortable lead at the interval (50-36).
Two minutes into the second half the encounter was all but over after Amit Tamir's three opened a 20 point margin from which there was no coming back for Ashkelon.
