Israeli Premier League

Israeli Premier League

The Israeli Premier League logo
Country	Israel
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1999 (1999)
Number of teams	14
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Liga Leumit
Domestic cup(s)	State Cup Toto Cup Al
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Maccabi Tel Aviv (2013–14)
Most championships	Maccabi Tel Aviv FC (21 titles)
TV partners	Charlton Sport, Channel 1
Website	football.org.il
2014–15 Israeli Premier League

The Israeli Premier League (Hebrew: ליגת העל‎, Ligat HaAl, lit. Super League) is an Israeli professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Israeli football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 14 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Liga Leumit. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 32 matches each, totalling 224 matches in the season. Five games are played on Saturdays, with one game played on Sundays and one game on Mondays. It is sponsored by Toto Winner and therefore officially known as Ligat Winner (Hebrew: ליגת ווינר‎).^[1]

The competition formed on 1999 following the decision of the Israeli Football Association to form a new league. It is also ranked nineteenth in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, ahead of the Belarusian Premier League and Poland's Ekstraklasa.^[2]

Since 1923, a total of 14 clubs have been crowned champions of the Israeli football system. Of the twenty-six clubs to have competed since the inception of the Israeli Premier League in 1999, five have won the title: Beitar Jerusalem (twice), Hapoel Tel Aviv (twice), Maccabi Haifa (seven times), Maccabi Tel Aviv (twice), and Ironi Kiryat Shmona (once). The current champions are Maccabi Tel Aviv, who won the 2013–14 season.

Background

The Israeli Premier League was created in 1999 to replace Liga Leumit (which became the second tier) when the Israel Football Association decided to reshuffle all the leagues in hopes of improving competition. In its first season there were 14 clubs; the top thirteen clubs from the 1998–99 season and the top place club from the Liga Artzit (then the second division). That season three clubs were relegated and one from Liga Leumit was promoted. Over the years the league has changed names though the new names were simply commercial rebranding, including Ligat Pelephone, Ligat Toto and Ligat Winner.

Competition

There are 14 clubs in the league. At the end of each season, the two lowest-placed teams are relegated to Liga Leumit while two highest-placed teams of Liga Leumit are promoted in their place. For the 2012–13 season the league was decreased from 16 to 14 clubs as a result of reforms passed by the IFA on 27 June 2011.^[3]

The participating clubs first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 26 matches.

Following this, the top six teams play in a championship playoff, where they meet each other twice. Upon its conclusion, the first place team wins the Israeli championship and qualifies to participate in the second qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up and the third-placed teams qualify for the second qualifying round round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League.

In Addition, the Israeli State Cup winners qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. If the State Cup winners are also one of the teams to finish in the league's top three places then the fourth-placed team will also play in Europa League. In case the State Cup winners also win the Israeli Premier League then the fourth-placed league team will play in Europa League second qualifying round.

In addition, the bottom eight teams will play each other once to avoid two relegation spots.

Clubs

A total of 27 clubs have played in the Israeli Premier League from its inception in 1999 and the start of the 2011–12 season. For a list of winners and runners-up of the Israeli Premier League since its inception, and top scorers for each season, see List of Israeli football champions.

Five clubs have been members of the Israeli Premier League for every season since its inception. This group is composed of Beitar Jerusalem, F.C. Ashdod, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Members for 2014–15

The following 14 clubs will compete in the Israeli Premier League during the 2014–15 season.

Club	Position in 2013–14	First season in in the Israeli Premier League	Number of seasons in the Israeli Premier League	First season of current spell in Israeli Premier League	Top division titles	Last top division title
Beitar Jerusalemab	077th	1999–2000	15	1999–2000	06	2007–08
Bnei Sakhnin	066th	2003–04	10	2007–08	00	Never
F.C. Ashdodab	077th	1999–2000	15	1999–2000	00	Never
Hapoel Ironi Acrea	1010th	2009–10	05	2009–10	00	Never
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	022nd	2001–02	10	2009–10	02	1975–76
Hapoel Haifab	1111th	1999–2000	09	2009–10	01	1998–99
Hapoel Ra'anana	99th	2009–10	02	2013–14	00	Never
Hapoel Petah Tikvab	142nd; Liga Leumit	1999–2000	013	1999–2000	5	1962–63
Hapoel Tel Avivab	44th	1999–2000	15	1999–2000	13	2009–10
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	033rd	2007–08	07	2010–11	01	2011–12
Maccabi Haifaab	055th	1999–2000	15	1999–2000	12	2010–11
Maccabi Netanyab	131st Liga Leumit	1999–2000	12	1999–2000	05	1982–83
Maccabi Petah Tikvab	1212th	1999–2000	14	2013–14	00	Never
Maccabi Tel Avivab	011st	1999–2000	15	1999–2000	20	2013–14

^a: Never been relegated from the Israeli Premier League
^b: One of the original 14 Israeli Premier League teams

Sponsorship

In recent years, the league has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:

• 2002–2004: Pelephone – a mobile phone company (Ligat Pelephone)
• 2005–2010: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Toto)
• 2010–present: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Winner)

Number of foreigners

Teams are limited to five foreign players per team. Special circumstances such as Druze players from the Golan (no citizenship) or cases such as that of Toto Tamuz, do not count against the foreign player limit.

Broadcast Rights

Television

Israeli Premier League games are broadcast live on Sport 1, Sport 1 HD, and Sport 2 channels, with the big match of the week which is reserved to be shown by Channel 1 and Channel 1 HD network television. There is also a league review show on Saturday nights at Sport 5 channel.

Abroad, rights to broadcasting in Hebrew are owned by The Israeli Network which broadcasts the matches in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Panama, Costa Rica and in Europe.

In the United Kingdom, William Hill broadcasts matches live with English commentary on their online television service, William Hill TV.

Radio

The rights of broadcasting on the radio belongs to Radio Tel Aviv since 2011, which broadcast alongside Radio Haifa, Radio Darom, Radio Galei Zahal and Radio Darom 101.5 in a show called Saturday of Football which also broadcasts live on ONE TV channel.

Internet

The big match of the week are shown in Channel 1 website. Since 2010, games summary are shown online by Ynet, ONE and Sport 5.

Cellular

Since 2012, ONE owns the broadcasting rights, which was previously owned by Sport 5.

Revenue

Main sources of revenue for the clubs:

• Television
• Ticket sales
• Merchandise
• Toto Winner – The Israeli Sports Betting Council
• Sponsorship

UEFA league ranking

In European leagues

Source: UEFA Coefficients Graphs, 2014 UEFA Country Ranking

• 15 Gambrinus Liga
• 16 Liga I
• 17 Israeli Premier League
• 18 Cypriot First Division
• 19 Danish Superliga

Champions

Champions Season Club 1999–2000 Hapoel Tel Aviv 2000–01 Maccabi Haifa 2001–02 Maccabi Haifa 2002–03 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2003–04 Maccabi Haifa 2004–05 Maccabi Haifa 2005–06 Maccabi Haifa 2006–07 Beitar Jerusalem 2007–08 Beitar Jerusalem 2008–09 Maccabi Haifa 2009–10 Hapoel Tel Aviv 2010–11 Maccabi Haifa 2011–12 Ironi Kiryat Shmona 2012–13 Maccabi Tel Aviv 2013–14 Maccabi Tel Aviv

Total championships Rank Club Titles 1 Maccabi Haifa 7 2 Maccabi Tel Aviv 3 3 Beitar Jerusalem 2 Hapoel Tel Aviv 2 5 Ironi Kiryat Shmona 1

"Big Four" dominance "Big Four" since the start of the Israeli Premier League[4] Season BJ HT MH MT 1999–2000 5 1 2 6 2000–01 5 2 1 4 2001–02 10 2 1 3 2002–03 9 3 2 1 2003–04 9 5 1 2 2004–05 4 9 1 8 2005–06 3 2 1 6 2006–07 1 4 5 3 2007–08 1 7 5 6 2008–09 3 2 1 6 2009–10 5 1 2 3 2010–11 11 2 1 3 2011–12 9 2 5 6 2012–13 10 3 2 1 2013–14 7 4 5 1

Top goalscorers by season

Season	Player	Goals	Club
1999–2000	Assi Tubi	27	Maccabi Petah Tikva
2000–01	Avi Nimni	25	Maccabi Tel Aviv
2001–02	Kobi Refua	18	Maccabi Petah Tikva
2002–03	Yaniv Abargil	18	Hapoel Kfar Saba
	Shay Holtzman	18	Ironi Rishon LeZion / F.C. Ashdod
2003–04	Ofir Haim	16	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
	Shay Holtzman	16	F.C. Ashdod
2004–05	Roberto Colautti	19	Maccabi Haifa
2005–06	Shay Holtzman	18	F.C. Ashdod
2006–07	Yaniv Azran	15	F.C. Ashdod
2007–08	Samuel Yeboah	15	Hapoel Kfar Saba
2008–09	Barak Yitzhaki	14	Beitar Jerusalem
	Shimon Abuhatzira	14	Hapoel Petah Tikva
	Eliran Atar	14	Bnei Yehuda
2009–10	Shlomi Arbeitman	28	Maccabi Haifa
2010–11	Toto Tamuz	21	Hapoel Tel Aviv
2011–12	Ahmad Saba'a	20	Maccabi Netanya
2012–13	Eliran Atar	22	Maccabi Tel Aviv
2013–14	Eran Zahavi	29	Maccabi Tel Aviv

All-time table

The All-time Israeli Premier League table is a cumulative record of all match results, points and goals of every team that has played in the Israeli Premier League since its inception in 1999. The table that follows is accurate as of the end of the 2013–14 season. Teams in bold are part of the 2014–15 Israeli Premier League. Numbers in bold are the record (highest) numbers in each column.

Pos.	Club	Seasons	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GFPG	GA	GAPG	GD	Pts	1°	2°	3°	Relegated	Avg. Pts
1	Maccabi Haifa	14	484	285	113	86	871	1.8	415	0.857	446	968	7	4			69.14
2	Hapoel Tel Aviv	14	484	248	128	109	774	1.599	457	0.944	317	868[nb 1]	2	6	2		62
3	Maccabi Tel Aviv	14	484	224	121	139	709	1.465	486	1.004	225	787[nb 2]	2	1	4		56.21
4	Beitar Jerusalem	14	481	185	129	157	688	1.43	575	1.195	73	708[nb 3]	2		2		50.57
5	F.C. Ashdod	14	481	163	121	196	601	1.249	680	1.414	–51	610			1		43.57
6	Maccabi Petah Tikva	13	444	162	126	156	532	1.198	524	1.18	8	609[nb 4]		1	1		46.85
7	Maccabi Netanya	13	446	159	129	158	556	1.247	575	1.289	–16	603		2		2	46.38
8	Bnei Yehuda	13	451	158	116	177	532	1.18	595	1.319	–63	588			1	1	45.23
9	Hapoel Petah Tikva	12	415	127	87	181	505	1.217	618	1.489	–113	476[nb 5]			1	4	39.67
10	Hapoel Haifa	8	281	91	106	104	344	1.224	349	1.242	4	359			1	2	44.88
11	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	8	268	96	67	105	342	1.276	380	1.418	–38	355				1	44.38
12	Bnei Sakhnin	9	303	90	85	128	307	1.137	390	1.444	–80	353[nb 6]				1	39.22
13	Ironi Kiryat Shmona	5	174	70	51	53	217	1.247	187	1.075	30	261	1		1	1	52.2
14	Hapoel Kfar Saba	5	171	40	55	76	191	1.117	272	1.591	–81	172[nb 7]				3	34.4
15	Hapoel Ironi Acre	4	138	40	46	51	175	1.268	190	1.377	–15	167					41.75
16	Hapoel Rishon LeZion	5	180	41	41	98	195	1.083	316	1.756	–121	164				2	32.8
17	Maccabi Herzliya	3	105	25	24	56	112	1.067	179	1.705	–67	99				2	33
18	Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon	2	73	23	17	33	68	0.9	95	1.3	–27	86					43
19	Hapoel Ramat Gan	3	103	19	29	55	96	0.932	160	1.553	–64	82[nb 8]				2	27.33
20	Hapoel Nazareth Illit	2	66	20	20	26	71	1.076	93	1.409	–22	80				1	40
21	Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan	2	66	12	21	33	58	0.879	100	1.515	–42	57				2	28.5
22	Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	2	68	15	13	40	73	1.074	143	2.103	–70	55[nb 9]				2	27.5
23	Hapoel Ra'anana	1	35	6	10	19	33	0.943	58	1.657	–25	28				1	28
24	Maccabi Kiryat Gat	1	33	7	6	20	34	1.03	58	1.758	–24	27				1	27
25	Hapoel Jerusalem	1	39	6	6	27	33	0.846	82	2.103	–49	24				1	24
26	Hapoel Ashkelon	1	35	9	5	21	33	0.943	66	1.886	–33	17				1	17
27	Hapoel Tzafririm Holon	1	38	4	4	30	25	0.658	85	2.237	–60	16				1	16
Total		14	3,173	2,335	838[nb 10]	2,335	8,137		2.564		–	7,909[nb 11]	14			30	581.21

League or status at 2014–15:

	2014–15 Israeli Premier League
	2014–15 Liga Leumit
	2014–15 Liga Alef
	2014–15 Liga Bet
	2014–15 Liga Gimel
	Clubs that no longer exist

Notes

1. ↑ Hapoel Tel Aviv were deducted 3 points
2. ↑ Maccabi Tel Aviv were deducted 6 points
3. ↑ Beitar Jerusalem were deducted 6 points
4. ↑ Maccabi Petah Tikva were deducted 3 points
5. ↑ Hapoel Petah Tikva were deducted 12 points
6. ↑ Bnei Sakhnin were deducted 2 points
7. ↑ Hapoel Kfar Saba were deducted 3 points
8. ↑ Hapoel Ramat Gan were deducted 4 points
9. ↑ Maccabi Ahi Nazareth were deducted 3 points
10. ↑ 838 games ended up with a draw, resulting up with 1,676 points
11. ↑ 42 points were deducted over the years

References

External links

• Israel Football Association
• Ligat Al Soccerway

Israeli Premier League Clubs Beitar Jerusalem Bnei Sakhnin F.C. Ashdod Hapoel Acre Hapoel Be'er Sheva Hapoel Haifa Ironi Kiryat Shmona Hapoel Petah Tikva Hapoel Ra'anana Hapoel Tel Aviv Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Netanya Maccabi Petah Tikva Maccabi Tel Aviv Stadiums Acre Stadium Bloomfield Stadium Doha Stadium Ironi Stadium Sammy Ofer Stadium HaMoshava Stadium Netanya Stadium Teddy Stadium Vasermil Stadium Yud-Alef Stadium Former clubs Bnei Yehuda Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan Hapoel Ashkelon Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Kfar Saba Hapoel Ramat Gan Hapoel Rishon LeZion Hapoel Nazareth Illit Hapoel Tzafririm Holon Hapoel Ramat HaSharon Maccabi Ahi Nazareth Maccabi Herzliya Maccabi Kiryat Gat Competition Champions Foreign players Records All-time table Seasons 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

Top division football seasons in Israel 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1937 1938–39 1939 1940 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

Football in Israel Domestic leagues Men Premier League (2014–15) Liga Leumit (2014–15) Liga Alef (2014–15) Liga Bet (2014–15) Liga Gimel (2014–15) Noar Premier League (2014–15) Women Women's League (2014–15) Other Beach Soccer League Futsal League Domestic cups Men State Cup (2014–15) Super Cup Toto Cup (2014–15 Al, 2014–15 Leumit) Youth State Cup (2014–15) Women Israeli Women's Cup (2014–15) Defunct competitions Palestine League Liga Artzit Liga Dalet National teams Men National team (History Players Records) U-21 U-19 U-18 U-17 Mandatory Palestine Women National team U-19 U-17 Other National beach team National futsal team Related to national team Euro 2016 qualifying (Group B) Eli Guttman Ramat Gan Stadium Other articles Haifa derby Tel Aviv derby Lists and categories All-time Premier League table Clubs Champions State Cup winners League System Foreign players Records Venues (by capacity) Israel Football Association (IFA)

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