On the day that Beitar Jerusalem filed its appeal against the punishment meted out for a pitch invasion by its fans earlier this month, its officials yesterday accused the Israel Football Association of conspiring against the squad.
"The Israel Football Association has a master plan for ruining Beitar Jerusalem," according to Beitar's legal adviser, Elad Eisenberg. "Everything that has happened has been planned - from the ticket allocation for the State Cup final to the nine-point deduction."
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Minutes after the end of the hearing at IFA headquarters in Ramat Gan (see box), Eisenberg met two senior IFA officials on his way out of the building and a heated exchange of accusations quickly developed.
"Everything that has happened of late has been part of a plan," Eisenberg said. "It's just inconceivable that the IFA is trying to harm Beitar at every turn."
In response, the deputy chairman of the IFA, Uri Shilo, reminded Eisenberg that they have enjoyed a close working relationship for several years, and that "these accusations are illogical. The IFA has nothing against Beitar," he added. "All of our decisions have been based on relevant considerations."
Eisenberg, however, was not convinced. "No other team in the Premier League has ever been deducted points - and suddenly Beitar finds itself losing nine points. Now there's talk of imposing a salary cap on teams in the Premier League. Why wasn't this discusses when Maccabi Haifa won the title three years in a row? Why is there talk of a salary cap now if not to harm Beitar Jerusalem? I know that there is a master plan to tear Beitar apart."
Shilo responded sarcastically, asking Eisenberg if he believed that IFA officials "spend all day sitting in the basement of the IFA coming up with ways of harming Beitar. Be serious, Elad," he added.
The trigger for this latest row between champion-elect Beitar and the IFA is the allocation of tickets for next month's State Cup final at the national stadium at Ramat Gan. According to Eisenberg, the IFA made the wrong decision when it divided up the stadium into sections for fans of Beitar and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
"The IFA should have called us and coordinated over how the tickets are to be allocated. They should have taken into account the rate at which each side was selling its tickets and given Beitar more tickets than Hapoel Tel Aviv, because Beitar can sell far more tickets than Hapoel."
Shilo explained that the IFA originally decided to sell tickets for gates 11 and 12 at the national stadium to a private company but that, since this did not happen in the end and tickets for these two gates were not sold, they decided to allocate then to Hapoel Tel Aviv and to allocate gates 17 and 18 (which were originally earmarked for fans of either side) to Beitar. Beitar is currently slated to receive 5,000 more tickets than Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Eisenberg said that he was left with little choice but to take his complaint to the IFA's appeals tribunal.
Shilo accused Eisenberg of making noises over the ticket allocation "merely to placate the Beitar fans" and to show that he was fighting for them. "It would be unprecedented for a team to take the issue of ticket allocation to the appeals tribunal, and no other team has ever kicked up such a fuss. The allocation was completely equitable," he said.
The IFA will tell the tribunal, which meets today to hear Beitar's complaint, that the allocation of tickets was done in coordination with the police and that, since thousands of tickets have already been sold, it would not be possible to re-allocate the tickets at this stage."
Before driving off, Eisenberg summed up the argument thus: "We'll see you in court."
Beitar's general manager, Itzik Kornfine, who was at the IFA headquarters for the team's appeal against its punishment, told Haaretz: "The allocation of tickets clearly favors Hapoel Tel Aviv. Uri Shilo is a supporter of Hapoel and he coordinated with them and didn't talk to us at all."
In response, Shilo insisted that he had not consulted with either team. "None of Beitar's accusations have any basis in reality," he added.
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