1947–48 Palestine League

The 1947-48 Palestine League was the twelfth and last season of league football in the British Mandate for Palestine. The defending champions were Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The league started on 1 November 1947, after several delays.<ref name="Liga Alef starts "on one leg"">Liga Alef starts "on one leg" Al Hamishmar, 31.10.47, Historical Jewish Press (Hebrew)</ref> with only few matches played, one month later, on 30 November 1947, the Israel War of Independence erupted. as most of the players joined the forces of Haganah, Palmach and Irgun, and due to the difficulty to hold regular league fixtures, the league abandoned. instead, the Football Association of Mandatory Palestine decided to hold a new league, Ligat Herum (Hebrew: ליגת חירום‎, lit. Emergency League), which started on 14 February 1948, consisted only clubs from Tel Aviv and neighboring cities, and depended on the possibilities to hold football matches and of available time.^[1] Ligat Herum was also abandoned.

Nordia Tel Aviv was on top of both leagues by the time they were abandoned. following the Israeli Declaration of Independence, all the clubs kept their first tier status and went to compete in the first Israeli League.

League table when season was abandoned

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Nordia Tel Aviv^1	4	3	1	0	9	4	5	7
2	Maccabi Petah Tikva	5	3	1	1	11	7	4	7
3	Hapoel Petah Tikva	3	3	0	0	11	5	6	6
4	Maccabi Tel Aviv	2	2	0	0	13	1	12	4
5	Hapoel Haifa	3	2	0	1	12	7	5	4
6	Hapoel Tel Aviv	3	2	0	1	7	3	4	4
7	Maccabi Rehovot	3	2	0	1	7	6	1	4
8	Hapoel Rishon LeZion	4	2	0	2	13	10	3	4
9	Hapoel Ramat Gan	4	1	1	2	10	10	0	3
10	Maccabi Haifa	3	1	0	2	5	10	-5	2
11	Maccabi Rishon LeZion	3	0	1	2	5	12	-7	1
12	Maccabi Netanya	3	0	0	3	5	11	-6	0
13	Maccabi Nes Tziona	3	0	0	3	1	8	-7	0
14	Hapoel HaTzafon Tel Aviv	5	0	0	5	3	18	-15	0

Ligat Herum

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Nordia Tel Aviv^1	4	3	1	0	10	2	8	7
2	Hapoel Tel Aviv	5	2	2	1	16	4	12	6
3	Maccabi Tel Aviv	4	2	2	0	14	4	10	6
4	Hapoel Petah Tikva	5	2	1	2	9	11	-2	5
5	Maccabi Petah Tikva	3	1	1	1	4	10	-6	3
6	Hapoel Ramat Gan	2	0	0	2	2	8	-6	0
7	Hapoel HaTzafon Tel Aviv	2	0	0	2	0	16	-16	0

1. After the 1947 Palestine Cup final, the British authorities banned Beitar clubs, following claims that their players operated within the Irgun (which were actually right). in order to continue football activities, the Beitar management decided on temporary renaming of Beitar clubs to Nordia (named after Max Nordau). therefore, Beitar Tel Aviv played under the name of Nordia Tel Aviv in the 1947-48 season.^[2]

References

• Previous seasons The Israel Football Association (Hebrew)

1. Tomorrow Emergency League starts Davar, 13.2.48, Historical Jewish Press (Hebrew)
2. Beitar in Football Beitar National Sport Center (Hebrew)