Hapoel Kiryat Shalom F.C.

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Hapoel Kiryat Shalom
הפועל קרית שלום

Full name

Hapoel "Easy-Forex" Kiryat Shalom

Founded

Ground

Kiryat Shalom, Tel Aviv

Chairman

Levi Rahmani, Salomon Harari

Head Coach

Yaakov Yakhri, Web2Sport.com users

League

Liga Gimel

2007-08

4th^[1]





Home colours





Away colours

Team selection voting

Hapoel "Easy-Forex" Kiryat Shalom F.C. (Hebrew: הפועל "איזי-פורקס" קרית שלום‎) is an Israeli football club based in Tel Aviv. Playing in Liga Gimel, the sixth level of Israeli football, they are notable for being the first interactive fan-managed sports team, as almost all playing-related decisions (such as squad selection, substitutions etc.) are taken through votes on the Web2Sport website.

1 Background
2 Decision making
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Background

Web2sport was founded by Moshe Hogeg, Shimon Dor, Roy Dvora and Adam Weiss. Hogeg claimed he was inspired to do after watching Argentina striker Lionel Messi dropped for the game against Germany in the 2006 World Cup.^[2] The company purchased Hapoel Kiryat Shalom for €350,000 in June 2007.^[3]

Having previously had an average attendance of around 100, the club's first game under the new system was watched online by 6,000 people. However, the first result was a 3-2 loss to Maccabi Ironi Or Yehuda.^[3]

[edit] Decision making

Registered users of the website, of which there were around 8,000 in October 2007,^[4] vote on various decisions at the club:

Between Sunday and Wednesday a vote is held on formation.
Between Wednesday and matchday (Friday or Saturday) a vote is held on player selection
Following squad selection, a vote is held on the designated penalty taker for the forthcoming game
Home games are streamed live on the website, whilst there is radio commentary for away matches,^[5] allowing fans to vote on whether to make a substitution, and, if the vote is to do so, who to take off and bring on. Decisions are relayed to the coach as he has a laptop in the dugouts.^[6]

However, in November 2007 it was discovered that opposition fans had been deliberately substituting the club's main striker, Zohar Kaminsky, during games.^[7] Following this, new guidelines on voting were announced.