Maccabi Jaffa F.C.

Maccabi Jaffa
Full name Maccabi Jaffa Football Club
Founded 1949
Dissolved 2000
Ground Gaon Stadium, Jaffa
1999-2000 Liga Alef South, 9th

Maccabi Jaffa Football Club was one of the first football teams in Israel. It was founded in the year of 1949 as "Zionist association of Maccabi Jaffa", by Jewish immigrants from Bulgaria.

The Team played for 32 seasons in the Israeli Top Division, though its only title was The Israeli Toto Cup for the Second Division. Maccabi Jaffa finished three times at the second place in the Israeli First Division (in the seasons of 1962, 1964 and 1977). In the year of 1957, Maccabi Jaffa played at the final of the Israeli State cup, but lost the Hapoel Petah Tikva. The fan's club Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa won the Israeli District Cup of the fourth and sixth divisions in the 2009 and 2010 in the season.

Contents

History

The Early Years

Zionist association of Maccabi Jaffa was founded in 1949 by the members of Maccabi Bulgaria organization who immigrated to Israel. The members donated money and built the club's stadium who nicknamed "The Tin Stadium". In the season of 1954-1955 Maccabi Jaffa played in the promotion playoffs for the Israeli top division with Hapoel Kfar-Saba, Hapoel Kiryat Haim, and Beitar Jerusalem. Jaffa won the Playoofs and promoted for the first time to the Israeli major league.

During the 50's Maccabi Jaffa was struggling in the bottom part of the Israeli First Division. The pick of this period was in the season of 1956-1957 when Maccabi Jaffa participated in the final of The Israeli State Cup, though they lost 2-1 to Hapoel Petah Tikva

The Sixties

In the 60's, Maccabi Jaffa was close twice to win the championship.

In the Season of 1961-1962 Maccabi Jaffa finished second in the Israeli Major League, only 2 points from the champions, Hapoel Petah Tikva.

The season of 1963-1964 considered as the best season of Maccabi Jaffa history. In this season Maccabi Jaffa fought the championship against Hapoel Ramat Gan. In the games between the teams, Jaffa had won 3-1 in Ramat Gan, and 1-0 in Jaffa, but that wasn’t enough. Ramat-Gan won the Championship, only 1 point above Maccabi Jaffa. In that season, Maccabi Jaffa striker Israel Ashkenazi was Israel's top scorer with 21 goals.

In the late 60's, Jaffa failed to show the same quality as in their top years, and in the season of 1969-1970 Maccabi Jaffa finished in the 15th position, and was relegated to the second league, after 14 years in the top division

The Seventies

Maccabi Jaffa had started the 70's in the second division. In the season of 1970-1971 Maccabi Jaffa got their revenge in Hapoel Ramat Gan , after winning 1-0 in the last game of the season in Jaffa, and promoting back to the First Division on account of Ramat-Gan.

The rest of the 70's, Jaffa was a mediocre team in the Israeli first division. The only season worth mentioning is 1976-1977. in this year, Jaffa was once again close to be the champions. Jaffa finished in the second place, after Maccabi Tel Aviv, that's after Jaffa won Tel-Aviv in both games that season.

The Eighties

Jaffa's first season in the 80's was promising, as the team finished in the third place, but from there everything went wrong.

Jaffa became a bottom league team, until in the season of 1986-1987 Jaffa finished in the 15th place and was relegated to the second division after 16 years in the first division.

Jaffa hadn’t succeed to promote to the first division in the 80's, and finished in mid-table the next seasons in the second league.

The Nineties

The first years of the 90's seem good for Maccabi Jaffa. In the season of 1991-1992 Jaffa finished only in the sixth place, but won their first title ever: Israeli Toto Cup of the Second Division.

Jaffa won the title again in the next season, and finished in fourth place, which earned the team a promotion playoff against Hapoel Petah Tikva, who finished in the 14th place in the first division. Jaffa lost 2-1 and 3-0 and remained in the second division.

In the season of 1994-1995 Jaffa finished in the first place, and promoted to the first division after 8 years in the second league.

The season of 1995-1996 wasn’t good for The Bulgarians, Jaffa finished in the last place and relegated back to the second league after only one season.

Jaffa came back to life in the Season of 1997-1998. That season is considered as one of the best in Jaffa history. The team finished the league in the first place, with only one lose (to Tzafririm Holon, who finished in the second place). Moreover, Jaffa won the Israeli Toto Cup for the Second Division for the third time, and Jaffa's striker Ofir Haim was the top scorer of the season with 26 goals.

The season of 1998-1999 was the 32 and last season of Maccabi Jaffa in Israel's top division. That season was the worst in Jaffa's history and one of the worst in Israel's history. Jaffa finished the season in the last place, with 2 wins, 4 ties and 24 losses (10 points out of 90). And that wasn't all. During the season, Jaffa lost a lot of money, and got in deep debts.

Jaffa started the season of 1999-2000 in the second division, but after only one game the team was relegated by the Israel Football Association to the fourth division, because of Jaffa's debts. The team had changed its name to Maccabi Jaffa 2000 and finished the season in the 9th place. After that the club was dissolved. Most of the players of the team left for the team of A.S Ramat-Elyahu, who used the stadium of Maccabi Jaffa and its logo.

Millenium

In the 2000's, the "new" Maccabi Jaffa, A.S Ramat-Elyahu, targeted to promote to the third league, but failed consistently.

In the season of 2006-2007 the team finished in the last place, and was relegated to the fifth division. During the years, the team was united with the clubs Tzeirey Jaffa, Hatzrot Jaffa and Bnei Jaffa, and now it's called S.C. Bnei Jaffa. The team is no longer playing in Maccabi Jaffa's Stadium, and is no longer playing with Maccabi Jaffa's logo.

Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa

Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa
Full name Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa F.C.
מועדון כדורגל מכבי קביליו יפו
Nickname(s) The Bulgarians, Los Blancos
Founded December 24, 2007
Ground Holon municipal Stadium, A.K.A "The Cemetery", Holon
(Capacity: 3,000)
Manager Gabriel Alejandro Burstein
League Liga Alef
2010–11 4th

Before the beginning of the 2008-2009 season, some of Maccabi Jaffa's old fans gathered and reestablished the team under the name Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa (the team is beeing called after its goalkeeper in the 70's Herzl Kabilio who died from cancer at the age of 35). The club is a fan's club, and gains its money from the donations made by the fans. The team was registered for the season of 2008-2009 for the bottom league in Israel, Liga Gimel.

In that season, Jaffa won the Israeli State Cup for Liga Gimel, and finished in the first place, with only one lose. Jaffa played the promotion game against Irony Beit Dagan in Bloomfield Stadium in front of 9,000 fans.

Jaffa played in Liga Bet in the season of 2009-2010. in this season Jaffa made history when was the first team from Liga Bet, since 1963, to get to the Round of 16 to the Final of the Israeli State Cup. In the way to this phase, Jaffa won against Hapoel Hadera from Liga Alef and Ironi Kiryat Shmona who finished first in Israeli Second Division. In the Round of 16 to the Final, Jaffa lost 5-0 to Hapoel Tel-Aviv who in this season won the Israeli Cup and finished first in Israel's top division.

During the season, Jaffa won the Israeli State Cup for Liga Bet, and finished the season in the first place with no losses. Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa was the only team in Israel, who hadn’t lost a single league game in the season of 2009-2010.

Jaffa started its third season in Liga Alef, the third league in Israel. In this season, Jaffa broke their winning sequence, when they lost to Ironi Rehovot in Rehovot. The loss came after 65 consistent games without a loss, the longest time an Israeli team played without losing.

Jaffa finished the season in fourth place, which gave the team the opportunity to play in the promotion playoff. Jaffa won the Liga Alef's playoffs (against Bnei Eilat, Maccabi Kiryat Malachi and Asi Gilboa) but lost to Hakoah Ramat Gan, who finished in the 14th place in Israel's second division (Jaffa lost 2-1 in their home stadium in Holon, and finished 1-1 in Ramat-Gan).

Maccabi Jaffa will play the next season (2011-2012) in Liga Alef again.

Honours

External links