Following Monday night’s Israel State Cup Derby loss, Maccabi Tel Aviv and head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos parted ways after an inconsistent season to date for the yellow-and-blue that saw the club lose three times to their cross-town rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv for the first time since 1969.

Sfairopoulos had struggled to get his squad to play a winning brand of basketball this campaign whether it was in the domestic league where Maccabi has a 9-6 record and currently sits in 3rd place or in the Euroleague where the club is a game under .500 with a record of 11-12 good for 12th place.

However, after a pair of league losses to the Reds over the past couple of months plus a devastating defeat in a one game knockout State Cup semifinal, Maccabi management finally pulled the plug after 4 seasons with Sfairopoulos as the bench boss.

Following the State Cup Derby defeat, Sfairopoulos said, “We tried to do the best and this is a bad loss for our club, we all know what this loss is for the club. We want to apologize to our fans and I know how bad it is. We are suffering with them and we will try to do the best the rest of the way.”

However, Maccabi will go the rest of the way with a different face on the bench with Avi Even taking over in the interim and Oded Katash being a permanent option.

The Greek head coach was appointed to take over for Neven Spahija in November 2018 and while the team did not advance to the Euroleague playoffs, they ended up winning the Israeli league title for the first of three straight under Sfairopoulos.

The 2019/20 season was a banner year for Maccabi as they were well on their way to the Euroleague playoffs until COVID-19 halted their season in its tracks and cancelled the balance of their continental campaign. However, the Israeli league returned and with the help of Deni Avdija and Amare Stoudemire, Sfairopoulos took home his second local championship.

Last season, Maccabi once again had issues in Euroleague action but Sfairopoulos was able to guide the team to yet another league title as well as his first Israel State Cup.

This past summer, the club’s management brought in a number of high profile veteran players to try and make a run to the Euroleague postseason for the first time since the 2015 campaign under Guy Goodes, but Sfairopoulos had not been able to get the best out of the squad and find the right rotations.

While management had considered replacing the coach a number of months ago they decided to stand pat during a season that saw a number of games postponed to to Covid. However, following a third loss to Hapoel Tel Aviv the decision was made to make the change on the sidelines.