Israeli football's build-up to the 2026/27 season is being overshadowed by two separate flashpoints, and ONE's studio coverage this week is dedicated to both: a fixture-list row engulfing Hapoel Haifa in the Premier League, and a courtroom battle in the National League that could reshape who plays where before a ball is even kicked.
In Haifa, the anger centres on a schedule that the club says has left it badly exposed. Hapoel Haifa's opening-round league fixture against Hapoel Be'er Sheva was postponed because Be'er Sheva is still involved in Champions League qualifying playoffs, a knock-on consequence of European football dictating domestic dates.
The reshuffle means Haifa will now begin its season a round late, hosting Hapoel Tel Aviv on August 30, before an immediate away trip to Be'er Sheva on September 2 and then a further difficult away fixture at Maccabi Netanya in round three, whose date has not yet been confirmed.
Club CEO Itay Rak has formally complained to the league management, describing the result as three consecutive tough matches crammed into a single week and saying the decision left Hapoel Haifa "harmed by a distorted fixture list," according to ONE.
Two tiers below, in the National League, a far weightier dispute is playing out in the Israel Football Association's Supreme Disciplinary Court. F.C. Ashdod has petitioned the court to postpone its own opening-round match against Hapoel Afula, in a case that has exposed a rift between the league's administrators and the sport's judicial arm.
At the heart of Ashdod's petition is a serious indictment filed against Ironi Tiberias, which the club is accused of orchestrating a collective bribery scheme around a decisive relegation-survival match against Ashdod last season, alongside separate allegations of failing to comply with earlier disciplinary rulings.
Ashdod argues that letting its opener go ahead before the Tiberias case is resolved would create what its lawyers called "an irreversible sporting reality" — effectively locking in a competitive landscape that could later prove to have been unfairly shaped by the alleged bribery. The club had earlier won a partial victory when the disciplinary court agreed to join it as a party to the proceedings against Tiberias.
Hapoel Afula has pushed back hard, filing a formal response asking the court to dismiss Ashdod's petition outright, both on procedural grounds and on its merits, and rejecting any suggestion that its own scheduled match should be held hostage to a separate club's legal fight.
Presiding over the urgent hearing, Judge Miguel Deutsch offered a pointed reminder to both sides of the standard the court would apply, telling the parties: "You cannot make decisions based solely on speculation," as reported by ONE.
No final ruling on the postponement request had been issued as of ONE's reporting, with a decisive hearing still pending — leaving Ashdod, Afula and Tiberias all waiting to learn whether the National League's opening round will go ahead as planned.
Between Haifa's scheduling grievance and Ashdod's courtroom gambit, Israeli football is heading into its new campaign with off-field controversy already competing for attention with what happens on the pitch.
