Exciting moments last night at the Sports Hall, when the basketball department of Hapoel Haifa marked 20 years since the death of the mythological team owners in an exciting ceremony. The crowd stood up and cheered for a long time, the actors wore shirts with a picture of Ruby Shapira, and past players came to pay their respects.
Posted on: 20.12.21 09:37
Last night (Sunday), the basketball department of Hapoel Haifa celebrated 20 years since the tragic death of the late Ruby Shapira in an exciting ceremony before a game against Hapoel Beer Sheva at the Romema Sports Hall. The ceremony was attended by Ruby Shapira’s widow, Rachel, , And the football players who played for the team during the Shapira era, including captain Ran Ben Shimon, Oren Nissim, Eyal Tetratsky and Tal Benin. Tal Shir.
All the fans in the stands stood up and applauded when the Shapira family was invited to the center of the field together with the basketball team general manager Yuval Rossman, where the players of both teams stood, and it was obvious that they were excited. Who only knew how to give. “
“Thank you for coming to commemorate Ruby’s 20 years of death,” Rachel Shapira told the audience.
The audience, for their part, returned her with applause and singing “For War Guns.”
Shapira, a Haifa businessman, grew up in a house that was all red, and already in the ’91-’92 season he began assisting the football team behind the scenes. In the ’93 -’94 season, he acquired the team from the Histadrut and invested in the acquisition of prominent players, including Giovanni Russo, Goran Milenko, Reuven Atar, Ofer Talker, Njuan Grave, Oren Zeituni and Dudu Awat. To complete the puzzle, Shapira added good coaches like Avraham Grant and Eli Gutman. The latter even led the team to its biggest achievement – a championship in the 98′-99 ‘season. The following season, the team played in Europe and reached beautiful achievements when it passed the Turkish Besiktas, F.C. The Belgian Bruges, the Dutch Ajax and the Spanish Valencia.
During this season, financial problems arising from Shapira’s private business were exacerbated and intensified the following season. In December 2001, on a Friday evening, it was reported that Ruby Shapira ended his life at his home in Nigeria, a message that left the sports street in Haifa in shock.
Mayor Einat Klish Rotem was absent from the ceremony in Shapira’s memory, even though she was invited. The person who came to visit Rachel Shapira and her children was actually the mayor of Nesher, Roi Levy.
The Haifa municipality stated that Mayor Kalish-Rotem was unable to arrive due to schedule constraints and that she apologized for this to the Shapira family.
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