{"id":159546,"date":"2025-10-20T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T07:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=159546"},"modified":"2025-10-20T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T07:55:01","slug":"punishing-the-innocent-israeli-football-fans-missing-out-on-much-needed-dose-of-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/punishing-the-innocent-israeli-football-fans-missing-out-on-much-needed-dose-of-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Punishing the Innocent: Israeli football fans missing out on much needed dose of football"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that over the past two years since Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel, football has been a source of comfort and identity for me \u2013 not so much for the game itself, but for what it has given for an Israeli society that has gone through the unimaginable for the past two years. Football has helped Israelis survive, mourn and hope.<\/a> Football has been a form of therapy, which has, after everything that has happened \u2013 and continues to happen \u2013 helped us through this difficult period.<\/p>\n

Not only has football provided us with an appropriate form of constant acknowledgement of what is happening through ceremonies and memorials, it has also given us an opportunity to lose ourselves for ninety minutes and remember what joy feels like.<\/p>\n

In the weeks and months after October 7, stadiums across the country became sanctuaries. We weren\u2019t just watching football; we were mourning together, processing together, finding resilience together. The chants and songs were more than fan rituals \u2014 they were acts of defiance and unity. The sight of thousands of supporters \u2013 whether in yellow and blue, red and white, green, or any other team\u2019s colors \u2013 singing until their voices cracked, was a reminder that life could still have rhythm and purpose even when the world felt like it was falling apart.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain irony to the idea that football \u2014 the game we\u2019ve always turned to for hope, for escape, for a sense of normalcy \u2014 is now complicit in deepening our pain and feels so cruel Instead of football being a refuge, it\u2019s starting to feel like another place where we\u2019re being punished \u2014 not for anything we\u2019ve done, but simply for the pain we carry.<\/p>\n

Abroad, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have been barred from attending the Europa League game against Aston Villa in Birmingham next month. British authorities cited \u201csecurity concerns\u201d as the reason for the decision, as if the mere presence of Israeli fans \u2013 Jews \u2013 in the stands pose some unacceptable risk.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: this wasn\u2019t a situation where fans had made threats, or where previous games had descended into violence (other than the pro-Palestinian provoked violence against Maccabi fans following the team\u2019s 0-5 loss to Ajax in Amsterdam last year<\/a>). This wasn\u2019t about hooliganism or public order. This was about politics. It was about optics. It was about the fact that, to some people, the sight of ordinary Israelis waving scarves and singing songs is somehow too controversial to allow.<\/p>\n

What message does that send? That our grief disqualifies us from being part of the global football family? That because we\u2019ve been victims of terror and trauma, we\u2019re too \u201csensitive\u201d a presence to be seen in European stadiums?<\/p>\n

The bitter irony is that football loves to talk about inclusion. UEFA and FIFA plaster their campaigns with slogans like \u201cFootball Unites\u201d and \u201cNo Room for Hate.\u201d But apparently, those principles have limits. They don\u2019t apply if you\u2019re an Israeli fan still trying to stitch together a sense of normal life. They don\u2019t apply if your community is grieving. They don\u2019t apply if your flag makes people uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

For those of us who live and breathe sport, being shut out like this isn\u2019t just disappointing; it\u2019s dehumanizing. We are not terrorists. We are not political symbols. We fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends who save up money for away days in European play, fans who live for the chance to stand behind our team in stadiums around the globe. And we\u2019re being told that our pain makes us a security threat.<\/p>\n

Then, if being treated like a liability abroad isn\u2019t bad enough, football is failing us here at home too.<\/p>\n

The Tel Aviv derby between Maccabi and Hapoel on Sunday night was meant to be a highlight of the domestic season after a year\u2019s absence due to Hapoel\u2019s relegation to the Leumit League after the 2023\/24 season \u2014 a fiery, passionate clash that captures the best (and worst) of Israeli football culture. Instead, it ended in chaos after flares and smoke bombs were set off inside Bloomfield Stadium, forcing police to suspend the match.<\/p>\n

No one is denying that fan behavior \u2013 as expected \u2013 crossed a line. There\u2019s no justification for bringing fireworks, flares and smoke grenades into a stadium and those responsible should be held accountable. But the bigger picture here is more complicated \u2014 and more troubling.<\/p>\n

For many of us, this derby was more than just another match. It was a long-awaited moment of catharsis, especially after the return of the remaining 20 living hostages from Gaza last week. It was a chance to channel a two year\u2019s worth of tension, frustration and grief into something communal and passionate. But instead of being given that outlet, we\u2019re once again left standing outside, told that our passion is too dangerous, our emotions too volatile.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to see a pattern, Israeli fans are being treated not as supporters but as problems to be managed. Instead of helping us heal, football is now abandoning us.<\/p>\n

Football likes to call itself \u201cthe people\u2019s game.\u201d It prides itself on transcending politics, on being a global language that belongs to everyone. But that rhetoric rings hollow when entire groups of supporters are treated as pariahs simply because of where they\u2019re from or what they\u2019ve been through, or when the masses suffer collective punishment as a result of the actions of the small minority.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re constantly told that sport is supposed to heal divisions. That it brings people together when nothing else can, that stadiums are among the few places left in the world where people from all walks of life can stand side by side and chant the same songs. But that lofty ideal collapses the moment Israeli fans walk through the turnstiles \u2014 if we\u2019re even allowed to in the first place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to hold up football as a unifying force when it\u2019s convenient. It\u2019s harder when doing so means standing up for people who are politically unpopular. And right now, too many football authorities are choosing the easy way out. Instead of defending the principle that sport belongs to everyone, they\u2019re bowing to fear, to pressure, to politics.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most painful about all of this is how invisible the human side of it is. To the outside world, \u201cIsraeli fans banned from match,\u201d is just another headline. \u201cTel Aviv derby suspended,\u201d is just another story about crowd trouble. But behind those headlines are real people \u2014 people who have been through unimaginable trauma, who have lost friends and family, who have spent the past year trying to rebuild their lives piece by piece.<\/p>\n

And for many of those people, football isn\u2019t a trivial distraction; it\u2019s a lifeline. It\u2019s a small but vital part of what makes life feel normal again. It\u2019s a space where they can shout, cry, laugh, and feel alive \u2014 even if just for 90 minutes. When you strip that away, you\u2019re not just cancelling a match or denying entry to a stadium; you\u2019re taking away one of the few things that\u2019s helped people survive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to be clear: the fans aren\u2019t asking for special treatment. No one is demanding exemptions or privileges. All fans want is to be treated like any other supporters \u2014 whether as visiting fans from abroad or the same as any other local team that has a small but loud group of supporters acting illegitimately. Fans want to be given the same right to follow our teams, to celebrate, to mourn, to be part of the global football family.<\/p>\n

Of course, safety is important. We understand that emotions are high and the world is complicated. But understanding those things shouldn\u2019t mean accepting double standards. It shouldn\u2019t mean that our identity \u2013 whether as Israelis or as just ordinary fanatics \u2013 automatically makes us a \u201crisk.\u201d It shouldn\u2019t mean that our grief disqualifies us from the joy that football is supposed to offer.<\/p>\n

At its best, football has always been about more than goals and trophies. It\u2019s about community and resilience, finding joy and meaning in the midst of chaos. It\u2019s about reminding us \u2014 in a world that too often tries to divide us \u2014 of our shared humanity. Right now, Israeli fans needed this more than ever. But instead of rising to that moment, too much of the world is turning its back. The world looks at our pain and decided that it\u2019s too messy, too inconvenient and too political to accommodate.<\/p>\n

But our pain isn\u2019t a threat. It\u2019s a testament to our humanity. And the game we love \u2014 the game we believe in \u2014 should be big enough, brave enough and compassionate enough to make room for it.<\/p>\n

No one is asking for our pain to be fixed, nor is anyone na\u00efve enough to think that football can heal everything. But I do believe deeply in the idea that football should at least try<\/em> to be a force for connection rather than exclusion. But over the last week, football has failed that test. Until it does better and remembers that the people in the stands matter, the beautiful game will remain tarnished \u2014 not by the fans who love it, but by the institutions that have forgotten what it\u2019s supposed to stand for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that over the past two years since Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel, football has been a source of comfort and identity for me \u2013 not so much for the game itself, but for what it has given for an Israeli society that has gone through the unimaginable for the past two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":159551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,29,229],"class_list":["post-159546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-derby","tag-israel","tag-tel-aviv","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nPunishing the Innocent: Israeli football fans missing out on much needed dose of football - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/punishing-the-innocent-israeli-football-fans-missing-out-on-much-needed-dose-of-football\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Punishing the Innocent: Israeli football fans missing out on much needed dose of football - 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