Ironi Tiberias has escalated its confrontation with the Israel Football Association, issuing a fresh statement accusing the investigator handling its disciplinary case of turning the probe into what the club called "a campaign of intimidation," ONE reported.
The case at the centre of the storm concerns allegations that Tiberias ran a parallel, off-the-books financial and contractual system for four years, including suspected double contracts and document forgery designed to breach the league's salary-cap rules. The Football Association's prosecutor, attorney Gilad Bergman, has asked for a 30-point deduction, one of the heaviest sanctions available in Israeli football.
In its latest statement, Tiberias directed its anger squarely at investigator Din Frager, alleging he threatened to have players' licenses revoked if they refused to cooperate, and that he dangled plea bargains he had no authority to offer, describing them as "false promises made on his own initiative."
The club also claimed that the name of Football Association chairman Moshe "Shino" Zoaretz was invoked during questioning in a manner intended to intimidate those being interviewed, and that details of the case were shared with an outside party, Gal Bar-Am, chief executive of Hapoel Nof HaGalil.
Bar-Am's club has previously been reported as a beneficiary of any points deduction or relegation imposed on Tiberias, since a drop for Tiberias would open a path back to the top flight for Nof HaGalil.
Tiberias further alleged that Bergman himself blurred the line between prosecuting the case and actively directing the investigation, a conflation the club says compromised the process from the start.
The statement summed up the club's position bluntly: "When rushing, threats, politics, connections, exceeding authority and evidence contamination meet in one interrogation room, the result is not an investigation, but a fabricated case."
This is not the first time Tiberias has gone after Frager directly. The club has previously sent him a warning letter through its lawyers demanding his suspension from the case, a formal apology within 72 hours and roughly 100,000 shekels in compensation, while releasing recordings it says show Frager discussing the case improperly with outside parties.
The Football Association has pushed back hard against the club's campaign. Its legal department has previously dismissed Tiberias's claims as an attempt to "create drama out of nothing," characterising the club's public offensive as a coordinated media strategy meant to obstruct investigators, and accusing Tiberias of leaking investigation transcripts itself while complaining about leaks.
Tiberias has already petitioned the Football Association's judicial tribunal in an attempt to have the investigation disqualified and to halt the prosecutor from filing an indictment. No ruling on that petition, nor a decision on the proposed points deduction, has yet been announced.
The saga has run alongside a separate strand of the case involving allegations that Tiberias players received banned intravenous infusions, which prompted a complaint from Ashdod and drew in Israel's national anti-doping authority. Tiberias is currently playing in the top-flight Ligat Ha'al for the 2025/26 season, with the disciplinary case still unresolved.
