Ironi Tiberias has come out swinging against the Israeli Football Association's disciplinary charge sheet in the club's infusion affair, dismissing the document as a work of guesswork rather than proof.
In a strongly worded statement carried by ONE, the Ligat Ha'al club said the indictment was "riddled with continuous hypotheses, circumstantial assessments and attempts to create an atmosphere, instead of relying on solid facts and evidence."
Central to the club's defence is a point it wants readers not to lose sight of: there is no allegation of banned or dangerous substances. "There is no use of forbidden materials," the club said. "The indictment does not deal with poisoning, forbidden materials or drugs" — the case, it insists, turns solely on whether players received routine intravenous saline for recovery.
Tiberias went further, claiming the prosecution's own document concedes it holds no scientific documentation of the quantities administered to players, and instead rests on what the club called "conservative assumptions" and average estimates rather than measured fact.
The club also accused investigators of "serious failures" in how the probe was conducted, alleging premature bias against Tiberias, breaches of fundamental due-process rights, and a failure to properly summon or question key club officials before conclusions were drawn.
The affair dates back to a complaint filed with the Football Association by Ashdod, alleging Tiberias players received more than 100cc of saline solution ahead of a playoff match between the two sides — a complaint that triggered the wider investigation.
The fallout was immediate: the club's head coach and five players were provisionally suspended in early July while the association's prosecution built its case, before the formal indictment followed.
According to Ynet, the association's prosecution is seeking severe sanctions against those implicated, with suspensions sought ranging from six years up to lifetime bans for individuals connected to the club.
Tiberias has also pressed a selective-enforcement argument, saying at least one senior player told investigators that recovery infusions of this kind are common practice in Israeli football and named another established top-flight club where he says he experienced the same treatment — evidence the club claims has sat with the association for weeks without triggering a parallel inquiry.
"There cannot be one law for Tiberias and another for established clubs with large budgets," the club has argued in earlier statements on the affair, a theme it repeated in Monday's response.
The club is owned by businessmen Arye Klemenzon and Miki Bitan, who took over Ironi Tiberias's management in 2021 through their Dorot insurance group and steered it from the lower divisions up to Ligat Ha'al promotion in 2024 — the status now under threat depending on how the case unfolds.
Tiberias says it will contest the charges before the football disciplinary tribunal with legal arguments and evidence of its own, with sanctions up to and including points deductions or relegation potentially on the table if the indictment is ultimately upheld.
