A ceremony designed to celebrate Israeli sport's community work has turned into a genuine controversy, with Maccabi Haifa crying foul after the President's Award in Sports slipped away from the club at the last moment in favour of Beitar Jerusalem, according to a report by ONE.
The award, presented by President Isaac Herzog at his official residence in Jerusalem, honours clubs and teams for social and community contributions rather than results on the field. In the top-flight football category this year, the prize went to Beitar Jerusalem, recognised for making the commemoration of its fallen fans "a way of life" through the season.
What has angered Haifa, ONE reports, is how the decision was reached. According to the outlet, Maccabi Haifa was actually leading the committee's initial scoring by two points before the panel abruptly called for a revote.
The trigger for that second vote, ONE says, was a discussion among committee members about the implications of grenade attacks earlier this year on branches of Japonica, the store chain owned by Beitar owner Barak Abramov.
It is what happened next that Haifa's camp reportedly finds hardest to swallow. The committee is chaired by Andy Ram, Israel's former world number one doubles player, who — according to ONE's account of the deliberations — told colleagues he understood Maccabi Haifa's community programme "operates through an external company," while Beitar's work was carried out "personally," making the Jerusalem club the more deserving winner. Ram is reported to have also acknowledged working indirectly with Maccabi Haifa and to have said he felt uncomfortable with the club — remarks that preceded the vote swinging to Beitar.
A Maccabi Haifa source, speaking to ONE, pointed to what they described as inconsistent standards from the committee: the club said it had previously been denied the award altogether because of the involvement of forward Omer Atzili, yet no such objection arose this time even though Atzili and fellow forward Dor Micha — both now at Beitar Jerusalem after leaving Haifa — are on Beitar's books.
Bat-El Garbi, chief executive of Values in Sport, the organisation that runs the committee process on the President's behalf, declined to engage with the substance of the claims when approached by ONE. She dismissed the report as "yellow journalism" and said she was sharing a message she had received from Maccabi Haifa that reflected on the discourse, adding she would pass the matter on.
Publicly, though, Maccabi Haifa played it down. Club CEO Itzik Ovadia struck a notably calmer tone than the frustration attributed to sources inside the club, telling ONE simply: "I don't know about any mess, sorry."
The episode came on a night that was not without recognition for Haifa. Club chairman Jacob Shachor received a lifetime achievement prize at the same ceremony, an honour shared with Hapoel Beer Sheva owner Alona Barkat, while Maccabi Haifa's women's basketball team separately picked up a community-work award of its own.
Whether the disagreement over the football prize develops into anything more than a war of words remains to be seen, but the episode has exposed uncomfortable tension around a ceremony meant to celebrate sport's role away from results and rivalries.
