Hapoel Tel Aviv has come out swinging against Messay Dego, the coach it sacked in December 2024, after he filed a labor court lawsuit demanding 1,740,394 shekels in unpaid wages and benefits.

In a scathing public statement, the club described the claim as an act of "audacity" and accused Dego, whom it called a coach "earning enormous wages," of trying in bad faith to "grab money not owed to him." "It takes considerable audacity to demand payment at the stated rate without working," the club said.

Dego's suit, filed with the labor court, seeks wages he says the club stopped paying from June 2025 despite a contract that was meant to run through the end of the 2025/26 season. It also includes a promotion bonus of roughly 250,000 shekels and housing and vehicle benefits worth about 600,000 shekels, according to the claim reported by Ynet and ONE.

Central to Dego's argument is that Hapoel Tel Aviv's promotion back to the Israeli Premier League was, in his view, a professional achievement he laid the groundwork for even though he did not see it through. He says his dismissal was handled poorly, delivered in what he called a "humiliating" manner that reached him through the media before any official club notice.

Hapoel Tel Aviv sees it very differently. The club's rebuttal, carried by Sport5, put it bluntly: "We reached the league not thanks to Massaï, but in spite of Massaï." Its position is that Dego, who had the largest budget in Liga Leumit at his disposal, was let go after 14 rounds with the team well off the pace for the automatic promotion places.

Dego departed the club in December 2024, and Eliniv Barda was brought in as his successor. Barda went on to guide Hapoel Tel Aviv to the Liga Leumit title and an immediate return to the top flight in April 2025, a turnaround the club is now citing as evidence that Dego's methods, not his absence, were the problem.

The dispute has been simmering for months. Dego's camp reportedly sent Hapoel Tel Aviv a warning letter weeks before filing suit, which the club chose not to answer, according to Ynet's reporting on the case.

With both sides now on the record and the claim in the labor court's hands, the financial and reputational fight looks set to run well beyond the pitch, with Hapoel Tel Aviv making clear it intends to contest the demand in full rather than settle.