There is a saying that when people think of the Holy City of Jerusalem, two things pop into their mind, the Kotel – the Western Wall and the Beitar Jerusalem Football Club. However, over the past month Beitar has been the only thing on the tips of the tongues of soccer fans throughout the capital city.

From the Machane Yehuda Shuk to Ben Yehuda Street and the various local cafes and restaurants, the locals have been enthralled with the precarious future of the yellow-and-black which finally came to a head last week when Barak Abramov, the owner of the Japanika restaurant chain purchased the club from embattled Beitar boss Moshe Hogeg.

Abramov’s on again off again and then finally back on again purchase of Beitar ended a long saga that saw many highs and plenty of lows that had accompanied the club ever since Hogeg, the high tech entrepreneur took over control back in August of 2018 from Eli Tabib.

“This is an exciting day for me,” Hogeg said when he took over ownership of the club. “I want to thank Eli Tabib who took part in a short negotiation and left me a healthy and strong club. On paper I may be the owner, but I believe that a football club belongs to the fans and the city. It’s a huge honor for me to help take the club to new places. Football isn’t a business and there is no goal for it to be profitable. I will invest what needs to be and what I can to take it to where it needs to be and turn Beitar into a strong and competitive team just like it needs to be in Israeli football.”

High hopes came along with Hogeg’s purchase as the new owner looked to immediately take on the racist elements emanating from Beitar Jerusalem fans most prominently from the La Familia group who have been against signing an Arab Israeli or even a Muslim player. La Familia boycotted the club when Beitar had signed a pair of player from Chechnya back almost a decade ago and walked out of Teddy Stadium en-masse when one of them scored.

However, Hogeg decided to go head-to-head with these fans and even said that he had bought the club due to its racist image and looked at the challenge of turning the negative impact into something larger than the game of soccer itself.

The decision was made to sign Nigerian midfielder Ali Mohamed whose late father was Muslim and mother who is a devout Christian. Mohamed, who had starred with Maccabi Netanya for three seasons was the perfect signing on paper and furthered Hogeg’s vision, but in reality turned into a frustration for the supporters over the course of the two seasons with Beitar and was always a target of racist chants right from the get go.

Beitar Jerusalem which was founded back in 1936 has always been a club that has identified with the Israeli right wing and historically has been associated with the Likud party. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beiteinu Leader Avigdor Lieberman and Israel’s last President Reuven Rivlin are all ardent fans of the team.

Hogeg created a fan club and even had international soccer star Lionel Messi become a member as they took photos together at a summit held in Spain.
With hopes for real change, Hogeg’s next step in his desire to eradicate the racism prevalent among the supporters was to bring in a partner which would shock the country to its core.

In December 2020, Hogeg formed a partnership with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan from the United Arab Emirates. The Sheikh, who is part of the Royal Family, acquired 50% ownership of the club after a long negotiation process and committed to invest over 300 Million Shekels over the course of the next decade.

The news made headlines around the Holy Land and across the globe as the move came on the heels of the Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement which had seen the borders of the UAE open to Israeli businesses including the sports sector. Hogeg looked at the move as yet another step towards normalization which would bring a new dawn on co-existence, brotherhood and community in Israeli sports.

The Chairman of the Israel Football Association Orem Hasson praised the deal as well as hope was flying high that a new day was about to dawn on not only Beitar Jerusalem but on the domestic soccer scene as a whole.

Some in the Israeli sports industry looked at this move as being a bit odd, but with the chance that this partnership could bring peace to the Middle East in terms of Beitar Jerusalem, then any risk was worth taking.

But in February of 2021 as backlash for the ownership deal was being felt by many sectors of the fan base, issues began to crop up about the partnership deal itself.

The Israel Football Association found problems surrounding the Sheikh’s alleged wealth and requested documents were unable to be produced which set off further red lights concerning the 50-50 partnership. With too many questions and not enough clarity and answers, Beitar withdrew the request to approve the deal and said that once the proper paperwork would be in place the request would be submitted once again. To this day the request was never resubmitted for approval.

As Hogeg was left to lick his wounds and the Israeli soccer world and fans now looking at the Beitar owner with even further disdain, the next bombshell was only months away from going off.

Further embarrassment came when Hogeg needed to call off a friendly match against Barcelona as he claimed they refused to play the game in Jerusalem, however, the Catalan club said they had never officially announced that a contest would even take place.

The just as the 2021/22 season was about to kick off, Hogeg announced his intention to sell the club but that wouldn’t be the only big announcement that would occur.

In November 2021, a well known model came out on Channel 13 to accuse Hogeg of sexually assaulting her as a 17 year old which was only the tip of the iceberg when less than two weeks later the Beitar owner was arrested on charges of alleged crypto fraud and sex crimes. A month later Hogeg was released to house arrest on 70 million NIS bail.

The club, which was now operating without an active owner, tried to finalize a sale with Stefan Melloul a French-Jewish businessman in January of 2022 but after much publicity his $1 million dollar guarantee never arrived and Beitar finished out last season by just surviving a tight relegation battle.

As the summer months began, the future of Beitar was as murky as ever. Budgets needed approval by the Israel Football Association and players needed to be signed but that was unfortunately not even a consideration with the team’s ownership status in serious limbo.

However, as it looked that the team may head to the second division, two potential owners were identified in Barak Abramov who had been the owner of the Bnei Yehuda club as well as the Japanika restaurant chain and Josh Jacoby who had put together a group of Israeli and American investors.

It was clear from the beginning of the negotiations that Abramov was the preferred option but a deal with the restaurateur fell apart at the 11th hour as the club needed to get the appropriate approvals in order to remain in Israel’s top league.

With Abramov backing off, Hogeg held a last ditch press conference last Tuesday afternoon to try and get the two sides back to the negotiating table as a way needed to be found to bridge the gap between police guarantees, issues over the Bayit Vegan training facility and a number of other financial considerations that had to be tied up.

With a deadline looming on Wednesday at noon, Hogeg along with Abramov, Jacoby and Ashdod’s strong man Jacky Ben Zaken all gathered at former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat’s home to hash out a deal to save Beitar from D-Day. However, Jacoby who was reportedly willing to place some funds in the deal backed off which left the group needing to raise roughly 2 million NIS to finalize the deal.

The Likud MK was reportedly able to bring in the funds from a South African donor and the sides met and the sale was consummated just on time for Abramov to take control of the club and now hopefully for all involved take Beitar down a new road of success.

The budget was approved and the Football Association dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s to get the transfer of ownership through at the last moment in order for Beitar to open up the season this weekend when they visit Maccabi Netanya.

While a sign of relief has come over all those involved from Abramov to the League and the fans, there is still plenty of work to do. But after four years of a whirlwind ownership under Hogeg all are hoping that the next number of seasons will provide quiet and stability for the club with as little drama as possible.

However, in Israeli soccer and especially with Beitar one always needs to expect the unexpected.