I recently read in the news that Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel told reporters he has instructed police to crack down on Betar Jerusalem soccer fans who shout "death to the Arabs" at games held in Teddy Stadium. Touche!! I believe Betar is the only team that doesn't have Arabs on it. Maybe it ought to. The Israeli Palestinian team of Sakhnin did extremely well this year.
I went to one game since I've been here. It used to be "ladies free" a few years ago, but I had to pay by the time I went. They separated the fans of Betar from the Haifa fans sitting across the field. One Haifa fan entered "our" area and he was immediately surrounded by 10 security guys so nothing should happen to him. I don't think football hooliganism here comes close to what happens in England and in Europe, but it's far different than any US/Canadian sport event I've attended. For one thing - they all picnic. There was no one selling beer and popcorn throughout the game. People brought sunflower seeds and thermoses full of coffee. Then I tried to get something to eat during the break. There was a stand with seedy looking hot dogs and no condiments except for ketchup. No such thing as relish, mustard, sauerkraut, etc. Coffee was a do-it-yourself thing, and it was the coffee that is called "botz" (translated as "mud"). No lattes or filter. I got into the game, starting cursing in English because that's how I curse, and as the game progressed, all the Israelis around me thought - Hey its more fun to curse in English -so the "f" words were flying in our section. The game ended with a tie - so I have no idea what it's like to celebrate beating a top team in Jerusalem. And when I left the stadium, there was a carpet of sunflower seed casings all over the floor. It was certainly not Yankee Stadium.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Soccer games
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3 comments:
Brings back fond memories.
Whenever I'm in Israel I try fitting a Betar game into my schedule. The atmosphere is amazing.
By the way, I think its actually team policy not to sign Arabs.
ST
I read that in portugal they took away the beer from soccer events and are going to let people smoke marijuan thats sounds like a good plan if you want to read more check out this site The World Around The World
It sounds like you had fun the game....I wonder why here in the states we just hear and see the bad news that they say goes on over in Israel but im glad to hear some good come out of there.....I used to go to football games when i was a kid and when LA had a team.......but when i was there the most that would happen would be someone would get into a fight but aside from that we had fun cheering........
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