Green Apes

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The Green Apes (Hebrew: הקופים הירוקים‎), is the largest supporters club dedicated to Maccabi Haifa of Israel. The club was started in 2002. Its name reflects the degrading chants directed towards Haifa supporters. It is presumed that Maccabi Tel-Aviv fans used to degradingly call Haifa supporters "monkeys" ("kofim") in the eighties, possibly reflecting the bitter feelings caused by the gradual diminishing of Tel-Aviv area's absolute football hegemony and rising of "periphery" teams like Maccabi Haifa. Hardcore Haifa supporters have adopted this name for themselves, possibly as an act of irony directed towards the Tel-Avivians.