2009–10 Israeli Premier League

The Israeli Premier League was founded in 1999.[7] For 2009–10, the league expanded to 16 clubs and adopted a competition structure combining a home-and-away regular season with separate playoff groups.[5] The season was scheduled to begin on August 22, 2009, and end on May 15, 2010.[5]

Each club would play 30 regular-season matches before the table divided into three groups.[5] The top six would contest the championship and European places, the bottom six would compete to determine relegation, and the four middle clubs—those finishing seventh through tenth—would play for position.[5] The championship group added five matches to the leading clubs’ schedules.[5]

Points were halved before the playoff stage to reduce the gaps between clubs.[8] In the title race, this rule would turn Maccabi Haifa’s six-point regular-season advantage over Hapoel Tel Aviv into a three-point lead entering the playoffs.[4]

Maccabi Haifa began with ten consecutive victories and built a substantial lead at the top of the league.[9] After 30 matches, Haifa stood first with 77 points from 25 wins, two draws, and three defeats; Hapoel Tel Aviv followed with 71 points from 21 wins, eight draws, and one defeat.[10] Maccabi Tel Aviv finished the regular season third on 52 points.[10]

Beitar Jerusalem, with 46 points, Bnei Yehuda, with 45, and M.S. Ashdod, with 43, completed the championship-playoff group.[10] Bnei Sakhnin finished seventh on 41 points, followed by Hapoel Be’er Sheva on 40, Maccabi Netanya on 36, and Maccabi Petah Tikva on 35, placing those four clubs in the middle group.[10]

The bottom six after the regular season were Hapoel Ramat Gan with 33 points, Hapoel Haifa with 32, Hapoel Petah Tikva with 31, Hapoel Acre with 25, Maccabi Ahi Nazareth with 24, and Hapoel Ra’anana with 20.[10]

Hapoel’s winning streak helped tighten the championship race, and the meeting between the leading clubs on April 26 became a decisive playoff encounter.[9][11] At Kiryat Eliezer, Hapoel defeated Haifa 1–0 through Maharan Lala’s 58th-minute goal, created by Gili Vermut.[9] Although Haifa dominated much of the match, Hapoel’s victory took it into first place for the first time that season, with three rounds remaining.[9][11]

The lead changed again before the final round.[9] Hapoel drew 0–0 with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the derby, while Haifa defeated Beitar Jerusalem 2–1 with an 86th-minute winner.[9] Those results restored Haifa to first place with a two-point advantage, meaning victory over Bnei Yehuda in its last match would secure the championship.[9]

On May 15, Hapoel visited Beitar Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium while Haifa faced Bnei Yehuda at Bloomfield, with the two matches played simultaneously.[2] Vermut put Hapoel ahead in the third minute, but the visitors were reduced to ten men when Omri Kanda was sent off in the 29th minute.[3] Beitar equalized shortly before halftime.[3]

Hapoel goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama missed a penalty in the 57th minute, leaving the match level.[3] In the 92nd minute, Zehavi scored from the rebound of a Vermut shot following a goalmouth scramble, giving Hapoel a 2–1 victory.[3] Haifa, meanwhile, could manage only a 1–1 draw against Bnei Yehuda.[2] The combination left the two title contenders level on 49 points, with Hapoel taking the championship through a goal difference of +61 against Haifa’s +56.[4]

Hapoel finished its league campaign with 25 wins, nine draws, and one defeat, scoring 87 goals and conceding 26.[3] It was the highest-scoring team among the league’s 16 clubs.[3] Haifa finished second with 28 wins, three draws, and four defeats, recording more victories than the champions but the same official total of 49 points.[12]

The championship completed Hapoel’s league-and-State Cup double: four days earlier, it had beaten Bnei Yehuda 3–1 in the cup final.[6] It was the third double in the club’s history and its first league championship since 2000.[6] More than 20,000 supporters celebrated at Hayarkon Park on the Sunday after the final match.[6] At the celebrations, Vermut called the campaign “a perfect season that will never return” and said the team had believed it could win the championship.[6]

Haifa striker Shlomi Arbeitman finished as the league’s leading scorer with 28 goals.[13] In July 2010, he transferred to Belgian club K.A.A. Gent for a reported fee of one million euros.[14]

The points-halving system became a major subject of debate because of its effect on the championship race: Haifa’s six-point advantage after 30 matches became three points before the playoffs, and Haifa would have won the title under ordinary, uncut scoring.[4][8] After the season, Maccabi Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Maccabi Netanya opposed continuing the system, while a majority of the Football Association’s management supported retaining it.[8]

The expansion itself had also divided league officials and club leadership before the season.[15] IFA chairman Avi Luzon welcomed the larger league and expressed hope that it would make the competition more interesting and attract spectators, whereas Haifa chairman Ya’akov Shachar opposed expansion and preferred a 12-team league.[15]