Guy Geva
Israel Avitan (Lilach Weiss-Rosenberg)
Exemplary conduct of Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim. The club’s management decided to deal quickly and decisively with the recent disciplinary violations of the coaches and employees of the youth department. The coach of the first boys’ team, Israel Avitan, was summoned to a hearing before dismissal following behavior that does not fit the club’s values this morning in his team’s match against MS Ashdod, which ended in a 0:2 to the team from the port. The club announced that he will no longer serve as the team’s coach, after a player of Ethiopian origin cursed terrible curses.
The serious incident took place during a match in the Na’arim A League, when the coach cursed Lotem Essers from Ashdod, after a player from Ramat Gan was sent off following a foul on Essers. It seemed that the players were looking for him and trying to get him out of his shell. Lotem said about the incident: “The Ramat Gan coach cursed me when I came out as a substitute and said ‘Ben Z*** and Ben Sher****’ and I didn’t respond anything. The coach said ‘that stinking Ethiopian’. After the game he was in the car next to me and continued to swear and I didn’t answer him again, and he also gave us the three finger.”
Einav Hazenvald, the chairman of the club, said on the subject: “The youth department of the club is first of all an educational enterprise and first class values. For years we have been proud that we are different and the members of the club conduct themselves in a proper way, quietly and with zero violations of discipline and violence. In recent times, things have happened to us that have never happened before and we will cut this phenomenon from the root and fight it with zero tolerance. I prefer that all the teams in the department be in the fourth division without titles and without professional achievements, provided that there is silence, decency, tolerance and sacred values here as they have been here since time immemorial.”
