Israeli Football (if you can call it that)

hi,

this is going to be my first installment of jeremy's views on football in this country.

FIRST, a recap for ppl who arent familiar with my love of the Beautiful Game. since i was 11 years old i have supported a team called AFC Bournemouth . they are a little known side who rarely attract any attention.

(BORING BUT ESSENTIAL EXPLANATION).....why bournemouth you (and everyone else who has ever met me)asks. well, and this is the stock answer i give everytime, and its actually true. untill i was about 8 i supported liverpool. in my day it was liverpool or no one cos they won everything. then came 1985 and the european cup final against juventus in the heysel stadium in belgium. i was watching the game with my brother in my grandparents house in bournemouth (aaaah). as most football fans well know that game was delayed by about 2 and a half hours cos of fighting between liverpool and juventus fans which resulted in a wall being knocked down and many fans being killed. not only did liverpool fans cause british teams to get knocked out of europe but i felt like it was just wrong to be associated with a team of hooligans (the rights and wrongs of this can be debated, but remember, i was 8 years-old)

a few years later i came out the wilderness - bournemouth began to play well and were promoted under the stewardship of harry redknap. since then ive been following them through thick and thin. i want to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends who have come to watch the mighty cherries with me over the years - gids especially, hes an honorary fan, justin, my brother, my dad, nev and anyone else.

ANYWAY, back to israeli football.
Asi am a bit of a footie fan, i feel an obligation to try and continue watching the local side here, which are the not very mighty betar jerusalem. i first went to a game when i was in my first year in yeshiva in 1998 when betar had won the league the year before. they drew 1-1 with glasgow rangers in a champions league qualifier. it was great and i was hooked.

Crazy Crazy fans at Betar Games

since ive been here ive already been to two betar games, both of which they have lost one-nil. the first as the maddest - away against maccabi tel aviv at bloomfield stadium last sunday night. luckily my friend ashley drove us to the ground but i just could not believe how many people were there. we got into the stadium about 45 minutes before kick off and there were already about 3,000 betar fans jumping up and down and singing. by the time the game started there were maybe 4,000 away fans and about the same amount of tel aviv fans.

unfortunately the game was a dissapointment. this guy avi nimni was supposed to be so good but we lost to a scrappy goal and never really looked like scoring. what really annoyed me was both the amount of fouling and the amount of faking. eg betars right winger barak yitzchaki falling over dramaticaly in front of the linesman after hardly being touched and causing play to be stopped.

on saturday night i had my first taste of a home game at "Teddy" stadium against hapoel petach tikva - a game we had to win. it was raining the whole time and the team were apalling (the opposition had a player sent off for 2 yellow cards just before half time but we just couldnt make the extra man count). but, even though there were only a few thousand people there, the atmosphere was nearly as good. israelis seem to love singing and shouting at games even though im not sure they understand football properly.

now im hooked. its so easy to get there - 50p bus ride, 1.50 in a taxi or a lift, and they keep on playing! easier than taking 2 hours to get to palace or bournemouth! so we have nazareth elite at home this weekend. we shall see. we must get a win!

theres also the national team - the nivcheret. they are playing a friendly on wednesday in jerusalem against croatia and then have 2 world cup qualifiers in tel aviv against ireland and france at the end of march. i bought my france and ireland tickets today and im going to pay on the gate on wednesday. i just cant imagine the national team are any good, even they have some foreign based players, cos betar are so bad. we shall see.

more soon people. keep the emails and comments coming. at the moment im using mikes computer cos i have to sort out web in my room. but once i do there will be loads of pics taken on the camera so kindly given to me as a gift by zoe, marc and andrew.

jeremy