Judges. I swear to you that this is not a column about Hapoel Jerusalem. It’s hard to come up with arguments for a team that is in a survival position, looking for points wherever possible, and ultimately losing a game because of (what seems like) a misjudgment. The team itself, despite the slightly jarring tones of last night (Saturday), is overall a positive body in Israeli football.
But even if the anger is understandable, I wanted to talk about a bigger phenomenon. It exists in other teams and in other audiences, and has permeated almost every aspect of discussions about Israeli football: the disproportionate and inflammatory attitude towards the referees. If once the walk to the referee after every boundary whistle was just the lot of the players, today it’s all of them: managers and activists and coaches, everyone attributes all their troubles – to the man in the black shirt. On the social network they call it “Nehi”, I call it – “zero class”.
It’s no secret that we live in a time of mistrust. The decline in the status of realtors and the rise of social networks, have led us to no longer believe in authority figures automatically. And it also has quite a few good sides; Many times one has to question the government (any government), and ask questions to the government (any government).
But it also brought up a problematic side of the discourse, a side that distorts the whole dialogue between human beings: conspiracy theories. From the corona to the Tair Rada affair, in almost every subject, there are those who push and promote “what you do not want to know.” The true and dark story behind the scenes. And many times, this search for conspiracy theories is damaging.
How does all this relate to football? Connect this approach to a coach standing in front of a camera, claiming that “the referee wants to take us down a league.” Or to the CEO of a team in the Premier League, who calls the referee “corrupt.” In general, it seems that the 21/22 season in Israeli football is conducted under the well-known phrase that every Israeli has heard at least once in his life: Things will change in our favor. “Whistling against us because we are good children,” Ziv Arieh said yesterday – and if so, the goal is “not to be good children.”
So the goal is not to produce better judgment for everyone, but for the “judge’s whistle to tremble” the next time he tries to whistle against us. It not only hurts the discourse on football – Hapoel Jerusalem, yesterday, was preoccupied 90% of the time with Bar Natan’s decisions and 10% with the fact that it did not reach a real valley position in ninety minutes of play – it also does not make the referees better. By no means.
So how do you restore trust? Obviously it also goes through the referees, who need to get better – and especially take down the arrogance (who tells the coach that “he will keep him away until the end of the season”? Does he even have such authority?) – an important task for the next referees chairman Giora Inbar. The road there also passes through a little more passance on the part of the team members, everyone.
And it’s not even related to the question of whether there was a Pendel or not. It is very possible that Bar Natan made a mistake yesterday. But it can not be the “spin” for teams that are unable to kick the goal, or have difficulty winning. We forgot a bit, but the judges are supposed to be on the side of the story, not the story itself. And for the sake of all those involved in Israeli football, we should return to that reality.
Bnei Lem. The fifth stanza of the song “Lil Haniya”, Natan Alterman opened with the sentence – “He talks about love (in which he opens)”. He wrote this about Yitzhak Sadeh, commander of the Armored Brigade during the War of Independence, who, just before the stormy battle in one of the most difficult wars that Israel had known, stood in front of his soldiers, and spoke of love.
Unlike a thousand thousand differences, within the toxic atmosphere of Israeli football, which includes a mix of violence, hostility, a desire for “war” – it is very rare to find people who are willing to talk about love. Really and closely.
It’s not easy to digest, but Bnei Lem is one of the great stories of the 2021/22 season. Mainly, due to its ability to be the antithesis of all that is evil in our industry. In a league full of introductory coaches, whose draw is almost their worldview, he tries to play open. In a league full of meticulous coaches, who weigh every word in post-match interviews, he is real – both in anger and in joy. When all the coaches insist on playing General Patton, he actually gets into Isaac Sadeh’s shoes – and insists on looking on the positive side. Try, even in our football, to instill a “happy” game.
And so, he meets too many people who have underestimated him. Who saw it as something “neighborhood,” far from a sense of introduction that many coaches bring to the field. But the truth is that Bnei Lem’s desire to ignite the imagination and bring back the fans, eventually also works on the grass – after quite a few sucking years, Netanya finally returns to where it saw itself: the bastard team that may not be able to compete with the big ones, But always able to sting them. Be prepared for the moment when they will lose concentration, to surprise with a victory. Not for nothing has he almost never lost to the empires this season. For he who dares, said the old proverb, also wins.
Israeli football needs more figures of the Bnei Lem type. Not necessarily from his background, but certainly with his attitude – an approach that calls for “getting out of the bunker” (literally). Remember that football is not a war, nor a heart surgery, and should not be taken so abysmally seriously. It is possible, and perhaps even necessary, to make it a little more fun except. A little more enjoyable for the audience, which is a bit forgotten behind in all these discussions. It’s not just Maccabi Netanya’s stands that have been full since Shalem took office; The audience knows how to smell optimism, and knows when it’s worth buying a ticket. Anyone who wants to bring back the audience should learn something from the guy from Netanya.
