Israel's National Anti-Doping Agency has filed a formal indictment against six figures at Ironi Tiberias, alleging the Israeli Premier League club administered banned transfusions to players — in some cases more than 100 millilitres — with no medical justification whatsoever, ONE reported.
Named in the indictment are head coach Eliran Hodada, team manager Gabriel Cohen, fitness coach Shlomi Vaderro, technical director Chen Sol, suspended club owner Miki Bitan, and staff member Aviv Jibli. The agency's prosecutor argues the transfusions were given, in the words cited by ONE, "without medical consultation, without medical justification, without medical supervision, without proper medical protocol" — circumstances the prosecution called of "considerable severity."
The indictment also accuses club officials of obstructing the investigation and failing to comply with disciplinary orders once the probe was under way, on top of the core charges of administering and aiding the use of a prohibited method under the World Anti-Doping Code.
Prosecutors are seeking suspensions ranging from four to eight years up to permanent expulsion from organised sport, depending on each defendant's proven level of involvement, along with a minimum of 500,000 shekels in costs to cover the investigation and disciplinary process.
The case traces back to a complaint filed with the Israel Football Association by F.C. Ashdod on June 21, alleging Tiberias players had received more than 100 cubic centimetres of saline solution ahead of a match — a volume that breaches anti-doping infusion limits regardless of the substance's legality.
That complaint triggered an investigation, and on July 5 the anti-doping agency handed down interim suspensions to coach Hodada, technical director Sol, fitness coach Vaderro and five Tiberias players, pending the fuller inquiry that has now produced this week's indictment.
Tiberias have disputed the allegations from the outset, insisting the fluids administered fell under the 100cc threshold and describing them as "legal and entirely clean" under WADA rules. The club branded the interim suspensions "draconian" and "unprecedented," saying they were imposed without a hearing or laboratory testing, and has accused Ashdod of trying to engineer the league table through the complaint.
The transfusion case lands on a club already under severe strain. Tiberias are separately facing a second indictment, over alleged parallel "dual contract" payments to players outside official salary filings, with the association's prosecution seeking a 30-point deduction that would send the team from mid-table to bottom of the standings.
Owner Bitan, already suspended over the transfusion allegations, has vowed to fight the case, with the club saying it will "confront all claims with confidence" at the disciplinary tribunal. A hearing date is expected to be set in the coming days.
For a club that was hit with a 14-point deduction over a previous financial breach only last season, the transfusion indictment adds a doping dimension to a disciplinary crisis that now threatens both Tiberias' league status and the careers of several of its staff.
