Doron Ben Dor
Maccabi Haifa fans (Omari Stein)
Maccabi Haifa today (Monday) filed an appeal against the penalty of closing the north stand against Hapoel Tel Aviv. The team, through the lawyer Ofer Ben Asa from the office of Amr Reiter Zahn Shokhtowitz & Co., filed an appeal with the Football Association’s court regarding the penalty of closing the stands and the fine of NIS 35,000 for throwing five objects and a ball onto the field of play.
“The team will demand to cancel the penalty of closing the stands, which is a collective penalty against 8,000 fans with subscriptions, which causes great financial damage to the club,” Maccabi Haifa said. “Also, at the club’s request to separate a separation between the upper stand (which is also closed even though there is a clear separation between the stands, a different price and in the past two years no event has been recorded from this stand) and the lower stand.”
The appeal reads: “The Court of First Instance erred in its judgment when it imposed on the appellant such a severe penalty of closing the stands while ignoring her active actions to eradicate the fan riot. All violators were caught 6 in number (100% success), criminal proceedings were opened, the right to purchase a subscription/ticket was denied And they will be sued civilly.”
“There is no doubt that the circumstances detailed above in combination with the fact that no person or property was harmed; the game was not stopped or delayed and the charges were not filed under unusual circumstances do not justify a deviation from the mandatory penalties, it should be remembered that the club carries out active actions to eradicate the throwing of objects and which are not carried out by groups others,” they added.
“This, the decision constitutes an extreme deviation and an incomprehensible deviation from the punishments given to the appellant and other teams for similar offenses until now. This is a deviation that goes against the reasonable expectations of the club, a deviation that undermines the uniformity of the punishments and the equality between the teams”, they concluded.
