Eps 1: The huge difference between Eyal Berkovic and Haim Revivo
— The Cucumber Season - Israeli football and less
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
When Reuven Atar requested to leave Maccabi Haifa for Hapoel Haifa , Ya'akov Shahar was quick to sign a replacement.
Revivo became a fixture in the national team lineup under Shlomo Scharf and competed for Israel in three FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns and UEFA European Football Championship qualifying campaigns in addition to 26 friendly matches.
Host
John Lowe
Podcast Content
But club chairman Loni Herzikovic is skeptical of the Haim revival precedent, and said earlier this week that he would like Berkovic out after next season. After a few weeks in the doldrums of Israeli football, he decided to hang up his boots and return to Israel to play for his youth club Ashdod SC. He made his first appearance for the national team in the 2-1 win over the USA at the World Cup in Brazil in 2006.
In the end, Revivo played in midfield alongside Avi Nimni and Eyal Berkovic, just as he played most of his national team career. He would be one of the most important players in the team, if not the key player for Israel.
The following season, Maccabi Tel Aviv reclaimed their place in the top flight, a situation that would be repeated in 1996. Revivo would make his debut in a Champions League game against Real Madrid at the age of 23.
Nimni himself was the man who sealed the title by scoring the winning goal and netting the winning goal in the final - a crucial 3-2 win over Tel Aviv. He would score 10 goals in all competitions for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1996-97 season, scoring in each of his first four games to seal the club's first title in Israel's top flight in 1997-98.
They dominated the domestic league, were top European teams and belonged to the golden generation of Israeli football - not just the names that moved to the West. Successful Israeli players who have played in Israel include Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yossi Ben-Youssef, Nasser Al-Khatib and Yitzhak Rabinovskiy.
But there are very few Israeli footballers who have made an impact on the European stage over a sustained period of time. Maccabi Tel Aviv won the European Championship in the 1970s and 1980s as well as the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
One of them is Lior Refaelov, a midfielder who has been in Belgium since 2011 when he signed for Club Brugge. Akiva is one of the best known and most respected players in the local Jupiler League in the country, having played for Krasnodar, Bordeaux, FC Twente, Vitesse Arnhem and most recently Bournemouth.
The diminutive midfielder has a reputation for being gullible and it was Israel's coach Avraham Grant who caught Berkovic's whining on the wrong foot. Ahead of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Grant omitted him from his squad and said he wanted to give youth a chance. Fearing that he would let the worm fly in the Israeli camp and show a stink finger, the head of the Israeli Football Association sent an emissary to him asking him to end his personal feud with Grant in favour of the team.
Throughout his career, Berkovic has been criticised for his lack of professionalism and attitude towards his team - the players and the game in general.
Racism is a major problem in Israeli football, with both Arabs and Israelis bearing the brunt. Arab clubs who played against Newcastle United in the Uefa Cup in 2004 were regularly subjected to violence. At a home game against Beitar Jerusalem, one of the leading clubs, more than 10,000 people chanted "Death to Arabs" and shouted "suicide bombers and terrorists" at the Arab players.
Palestinian striker Walid al-Kassam scored the late equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Beitar Jerusalem in the Uefa Cup final.
Racism is a major problem in Israeli football, with both Arabs and Israelis bearing the brunt. Arab clubs who played against Newcastle United in the Uefa Cup in 2004 were regularly subjected to violence. At a home game against Beitar Jerusalem, one of the leading clubs, more than 10,000 people chanted "Death to Arabs" and called Arab players "suicide bombers and terrorists."
Arab player Walid al-Qassam scored the late equaliser in the second half in the 2-2 draw against Beitar Jerusalem at the Tel Aviv Stadium.
Even during the conflict, one player, Tariq al-Quto, was reportedly killed by Israeli forces and others had their homes destroyed, as was the main stadium in Gaza. The team had to be rebuilt frequently and was financed by Fifa to strengthen players from the Palestinian diaspora, especially Chile. This is impressive given that they play their home games in Qatar, do not have a national league, usually train in Egypt and do not have players due to Israeli travel restrictions.
Gaydamak was one of several foreign investors and Roman Abramovich has been linked with buying Hapoel Tel Aviv, according to a New York Times report.