Ironi Tiberias owner Ari Kalmanzon says there will be no negotiated way out of the banned-infusions case hanging over his club, telling ONE Radio bluntly: "In the current case there is no plea deal, we are going all the way."
The affair goes back to a relegation-zone survival match in which Tiberias beat Ashdod 3-0 in round 30 of Ligat Ha'al, a result that helped push Ashdod below the safety line and down into the National League. Ashdod's response was to file a formal complaint with the Israel Football Association, alleging Tiberias players had been given banned intravenous infusions before kick-off.
According to reporting on the complaint, the infusions administered were around 800ml — roughly eight times the 100ml limit WADA permits within 12 hours of competition, a rule that exists specifically because large infusions can be used to mask other doping.
The Football Association, working alongside Israel's National Anti-Doping Agency, opened an investigation and provisionally suspended five Tiberias players — reported as David Kaltins, Guy Hadida, Niv Gutlib, Sambinya and Yonatan Taffer — along with three staff members, among them head coach Eliran Hodida and technical manager Chen Sol.
The case has since escalated well beyond those temporary suspensions. The anti-doping agency's legal counsel has filed an indictment with the Sports Doping Tribunal seeking suspensions ranging from several years to a lifetime ban for six people connected to the club, accusing them of "absolute indifference and blatant disregard" for player welfare. The proceedings against the players themselves are described as separate and still ongoing.
Before that indictment landed, the Football Association had offered Tiberias an exit route: a plea deal involving a 10-point deduction in return for closing the case before the playoffs. Tiberias rejected the terms, and talks broke down entirely after the club's lawyer, Nir Enbar, resigned from the case.
Kalmanzon insists nothing improper was given to the players — that it was a standard, legally purchased saline solution used for medical recovery, with no attempt to conceal anything. "No forbidden substance was given," he has said, casting Ashdod's complaint as a last-ditch move by a team fighting to beat the drop.
He goes further in the ONE interview, alleging the investigation has singled his club out unfairly and predicting the players will ultimately face only the lowest tier of a negligence charge, if any. He frames the scrutiny as selective rather than even-handed across the league.
It marks a notably different approach from an earlier, unrelated case involving the club — over irregular player contracts — in which Kalmanzon did agree to a plea deal rather than drag players through repeated hearings. This time, he says, Tiberias has chosen to contest every step rather than settle.
The dispute has already cost the club beyond the tribunal room. Kalmanzon has spoken previously about sponsorship and recruitment difficulties tied to the case, landing at a sensitive point of preseason as Tiberias tries to build a squad while the affair still hangs over its coaching staff.
For now, the tribunal process continues on separate tracks for players and staff, with Tiberias's ownership publicly committed to fighting the charges through to a verdict rather than accepting any further reduced settlement.
