Situation in Israel deemed unsafe for football matches
Israel’s woes with Hezbollah’s men of resistance and their Katyushas have extended to football. Four Israeli football clubs have to look outside the cozy confines of their home grounds if they want to continue participating in European club championships.
Two Union of European Football Associations Cup (UEFA) second qualifying round first-leg games involving Israeli clubs have already been rearranged. Hapoel Tel-Aviv will now play their home tie against NK Domzale of Slovenia in the Dutch city of Tilburg while Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv and Lokomotiv Sofia will play in Senec, Slovakia.
The game between Israeli club Betar Jerusalem and Romania s Dinamo Bucharest in a second-leg UEFA Cup game, originally scheduled for Jerusalem on Aug. 24, has also been affected.
In the more important Champions League, Liverpool will play their third-round qualifier away leg against Israeli side Maccabi Haifa at a neutral venue on Aug. 23. The Ukraine is a possible alternative.
All these matches have been rearranged because of the ongoing conflict in Lebanon. In light of the ongoing armed conflicts in and around Israel, no European competition matches can be staged in the country until further notice, UEFA said in a statement.
Israel has been here before. Between October 2001 and April 2004, all of Israel s home games in FIFA and UEFA-sanctioned tournaments were played outside the country, though a handful of international exhibitions were played in Israel. While Israel might be used to its clubs roaming around, it cannot like it very much. The big teams of the world, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, do not necessarily depend on home field advantage for victory. Their experience allows them to feel right at home and win, even when they’re not at home. But smaller teams, like those of Israel, need all the help they can get. Every little bit counts, including fans cheering them on in friendly neighborhood environs.
However, the Israeli clubs in question are lucky in that they get to choose where they want to play, being limited, of course, to another UEFA member. The choice of homes away from homes is insightful. Foregoing all of the glamorous European capitals, they have opted for Holland, which has a large Jewish population, and Eastern Europe, which does not house large Arab expatriate communities and whose populations and politicians have no opinion of consequence on the Middle East.
Israel Football Association Chairman Iche Menachem said there is no danger in playing in Tel-Aviv, which has not been hit by rockets. If there were attacks in London … and I said I don t want to go there, you think I wouldn t have to go? he asked.
Menachem would have to go. There was an attack in London in July last year. That, however, was a one-time incident that was over and done with within hours. In Lebanon, however, Israel is in for the long haul as troops in the thousands penetrate the south.
In London, no conquering army besieged Piccadilly Street, no F-16s strafed Trafalgar Square, no tanks rumbled on the grass of Hyde Park. In Lebanon there are smart bombs being directed by people with not so intelligent intelligence, falling every which way, killing many more children than resistance fighters.
This haphazard onslaught can only produce a likewise response from Hezbollah, as its volley of rockets rain down on Israeli cities and inch ever closer to Tel-Aviv. That’s why football cannot be played anywhere inside Israel with any reasonable standard of safety these days.
But again Israel can consider itself lucky. The situation of the displaced Israeli clubs is nothing compared to the one million people of Lebanon displaced in one month of Israeli savagery. One punitive measure far exceeds the other.
