The Euroleague confirmed that Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv will be able to host their games back in Israel beginning on December 1, 2025 while Hapoel Jerusalem will be able to welcome EuroCup teams back to the Holy Land as well. <\/p>\n
The good news which caught many off-guard was welcomed by the clubs as well as the fans who will be able to watch their teams play back at Yad Eliyahu after having been abroad since October 2023 with the outbreak of the war. <\/p>\n
The yellow-and-blue were thrilled to return home and released a statement about the process that they went through in order to have the games back in Israel, \u201cIn recent weeks, Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club has worked to enable EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas to make a decision with the backing of all EuroLeague teams to resume hosting games in Israel starting December 1, 2025. Maccabi\u2019s quiet efforts behind the scenes with the EuroLeague teams and the CEO bore fruit, as Maccabi received the backing of all EuroLeague teams and the decision to bring EuroLeague games back to Israel was made. <\/p>\n
This is a hugely significant achievement for Israeli sports and for the State of Israel on the diplomatic front as well. Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club has once again proven to be one of the leading and most influential forces in European sports. We\u2019ll see you soon at the arena.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hapoel Tel Aviv and owner Ofer Yannay also shared a release about being able to host games back in the Holy Land, \u201cThe club is happy and excited to announce the return of EuroLeague games to Israel starting December 1, 2025, subject to EuroLeague guidelines. The club thanks EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas, the organization\u2019s management, and all the clubs for their understanding and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yannay added, \u201cWe welcome the significant decision to allow the return of EuroLeague games to Israel. A big thank you to the EuroLeague management, the participating clubs, and everyone involved in making this decision. This is an important step toward a return to normalcy and above all, it’s emotional to know that our fans will once again be able to experience EuroLeague games up close, where they rightfully belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister of Culture and Sport, Miki Zohar spoke about the Euroleague\u2019s return, \u201cI welcome the decision by the EuroLeague management to resume hosting games in Israel. This is an important decision that reflects the new international reality Israel is in following the signing of the agreement to return the hostages. Sport is a bridge that connects through our strength, and the return of the games brings with it an important and sporting message. The State of Israel warmly welcomes the teams, athletes, staff and fans who will come to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until the games return to Israel, the three teams will continue to host abroad with Maccabi Tel Aviv facing Real Madrid on Wednesday in Belgrade, Serbia. Head Coach Oded Katash talked about the continental competition coming back to Israel while also looking ahead in order to try and get onto a winning track and improve on the club\u2019s 1-4 record. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very heartwarming,\u201d Katash began. \u201cAfter more than two years, it\u2019s truly emotional and I\u2019m especially excited for the fans. I\u2019m happy for Israeli sports and at the end of the day, this is a small gift that came as a result of the return of the hostages, but we have to remember it\u2019s not over yet. I\u2019m still not smiling, but what we\u2019ve been through in the past two years was like a human experiment. I don\u2019t think any sports team has gone through something like this. But there\u2019s still a month to go and right now, we\u2019re focused on basketball. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the new players were very happy and ironically, the ones who went through these past two years couldn\u2019t believe it. I asked four times if it was final, it just didn\u2019t seem real. I think our fans and Thursday nights at Yad Eliyahu are the best way to bring players to Israel and convince them to come play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. It\u2019s something they\u2019ve really missed, and I have no doubt that those who haven\u2019t experienced it will be moved very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katash shifted gears and discussed the club\u2019s next opponent, \u201cReal Madrid, like Olympiacos, I think they\u2019re a bit healthier than Olympiacos and have a deeper roster, so it\u2019s going to be tougher and more intense. They\u2019re an excellent defensive team and they don\u2019t have too many weaknesses. They\u2019re dominant in size, which is something we\u2019ve been struggling with since the start of the season. We\u2019ll try to handle it collectively, but it\u2019s going to need to be very aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the last loss, the way it happened, was really painful. But there are people here whose job it is to handle that. It\u2019s not going to be easy against Real Madrid and we\u2019re not the favorites, but of course we really want to win. I think it\u2019s still too early to say the league is slipping away, we definitely don\u2019t want to lose. It\u2019s a balanced, long, and competitive league, but regardless, we want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maccabi big man Roman Sorkin added, \u201cWe\u2019re really happy and it gives us a lot of hope. There\u2019s still a month to go, and we\u2019re waiting to see it actually happen, but we\u2019re very, very happy. Thanks go to everyone who worked on making this happen. It\u2019s impossible to describe how much we miss the fans, it feels so far away. We miss the energy from the fans on EuroLeague Thursday nights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Euroleague confirmed that Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv will be able to host their games back in Israel beginning on December 1, 2025 while Hapoel Jerusalem will be able to welcome EuroCup teams back to the Holy Land as well. The good news which caught many off-guard was welcomed by the clubs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":106247,"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":[9],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-159711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-euroleague","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n