2015–16 Liga Leumit

Liga Leumit
Season	2015–16
Matches played	127
Goals scored	326 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ya'akov Berihon Shay Revivo (9)
Biggest home win	Hapoel Petah Tikva 4 - 0 Maccabi Yavne (9 November 2015) Hapoel Nazareth Illit 4 - 0 Hapoel Rishon LeZion (18 December 2015)
Biggest away win	Hapoel Afula 0 - 4 Hapoel Jerusalem (16 October 2015) Hapoel Afula 0 - 4 Hapoel Jerusalem (16 October 2015) Hapoel Ashkelon 0 - 4 Maccabi Kiryat Gat (30 October 2015) Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon 0 - 4 Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem (13 November 2015)
Highest scoring	Hapoel Ramat Gan 3 - 3 Hapoel Petah Tikva (27 November 2015) Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem 2 - 4 Hapoel Afula (4 December 2015) Hapoel Ramat Gan 3 - 3 Hapoel Ashkelon (11 December 2015)
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 18 December 2015.

The 2015–16 Liga Leumit is the 17th season as second tier since its re-alignment in 1999 and the 74th season of second-tier football in Israel.

A total of sixteen teams are contesting in the league, including eleven sides from the 2014–15 season, the three promoted teams from 2014–15 Liga Alef and the two relegated teams from 2014–15 Israeli Premier League.

Changes from 2014-15 season

Team changes

Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv and Hapoel Kfar Saba, were promoted to the 2015–16 Israeli Premier League.

Hapoel Petah Tikva and FC Ashdod were directly relegated to the 2015–16 Liga Leumit after finishing the 2014–15 Israeli Premier League season in the bottom two places.

Hakoah Ramat Gan, and Ironi Tiberias were directly relegated to Liga Alef after finishing in the previous season in last two league places. They were replaced by Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem and Hapoel Ashkelon who finished first their respective 2014–15 Liga Alef.

Overview

Stadia and locations

Club	Home City	Stadium	Capacity
Beitar Tel Aviv Ramla	Ramla	Ramla Municipal Stadium	2,500
F.C. Ashdod	Ashdod	Yud-Alef Stadium	7,420
Hapoel Afula	Afula	Afula Illit Stadium	5,000
Hapoel Ashkelon	Ashkelon	Sala Stadium	10,000
Hapoel Bnei Lod	Lod	Lod Municipal Stadium	4,000
Hapoel Jerusalem	Jerusalem	Teddy Stadium	34,000
Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem	Jerusalem	Teddy Stadium	34,000
Hapoel Nazareth Illit	Nazareth Illit	Green Stadium	4,000
Hapoel Petah Tikva	Petah Tikva	HaMoshava Stadium	11,500
Hapoel Ramat HaSharon	Ramat HaSharon	Grundman Stadium	4,300
Hapoel Ramat Gan	Ramat Gan	Ramat Gan Stadium	41,583
Hapoel Rishon LeZion	Rishon LeZion	Haberfeld Stadium	6,000
Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	Nazareth	Ilut Stadium	4,932
Maccabi Herzliya	Herzliya	Herzliya Municipal Stadium	8,100
Maccabi Kiryat Gat	Kiryat Gat	Sala Stadium^[B]	10,000
Maccabi Yavne	Yavne	Ness Ziona Stadium^[C]	3,500

^A The club is playing their home games at a neutral venue because their own ground does not meet Premier League requirements.
^B While Kiryat Gat Municipal Stadium is under construction. Maccabi Kiryat Gat will host their home games in Sala Stadium.
^C While Yavne Municipal Stadium is under construction. Maccabi Yavne will host their home games in Ness Ziona Stadium.

Regular season

Regular season table


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Ashdod	30	16	9	5	52	32	+20	57	Top Playoff
2	Hapoel Ashkelon	30	13	11	6	50	31	+19	50
3	Hapoel Petah Tikva	30	13	8	9	40	37	+3	47
4	Maccabi Herzliya	30	12	10	8	36	29	+7	46
5	Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	30	13	5	12	34	35	−1	44
6	Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem	30	12	8	10	36	42	−6	44
7	Hapoel Bnei Lod	30	11	10	9	34	30	+4	43
8	Hapoel Ramat Gan	30	10	12	8	40	32	+8	42
9	Beitar Tel Aviv Ramla	30	13	3	14	42	46	−4	42	Bottom Playoff
10	Hapoel Afula	30	10	11	9	43	39	+4	41
11	Hapoel Rishon LeZion	30	11	8	11	42	43	−1	41
12	Hapoel Ramat HaSharon	30	10	10	10	43	38	+5	40
13	Maccabi Yavne	30	8	9	13	37	41	−4	33
14	Hapoel Jerusalem	30	7	10	13	26	37	−11	31
15	Hapoel Nazareth Illit	30	6	10	14	26	40	−14	28
16	Maccabi Kiryat Gat	30	3	10	17	18	47	−29	19

Updated to games played on 4 april 2016.
Source: Israel Football Association
Rules for classification: 1. points; 2. goal difference; 3. matches won; 4. goals scored; 5. head-to-head; 6. decision match
¹ Winners of 2015–16 Israel State Cup qualify for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Playoffs

Top Playoff

Top Playoff table


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Ashdod (P)	34	18	11	5	60	35	+25	65	Promoted to 2016-17 Ligat Ha'al
2	Hapoel Ashkelon	34	16	11	7	60	38	+22	59	Promoted to 2016-17 Ligat Ha'al
3	Maccabi Herzliya	34	14	11	9	44	36	+8	53
4	Hapoel Ramat Gan	34	13	12	9	49	34	+15	51
5	Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem	34	14	9	11	43	49	−6	51
6	Hapoel Petah Tikva	34	13	11	10	47	45	+2	50
7	Hapoel Bnei Lod	34	11	11	12	36	37	−1	44
8	Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	34	13	5	16	34	45	−11	44

Source: Israel Football Association
Rules for classification: 1. points; 2. goal difference; 3. matches won; 4. goals scored; 5. head-to-head; 6. decision match
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Bottom Playoff

Bottom Playoff table


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
9	Beitar Tel Aviv Ramla	34	17	3	14	52	48	+4	54
10	Hapoel Afula	34	11	11	12	46	49	−3	44
11	Hapoel Rishon LeZion	34	11	9	14	45	50	−5	42
12	Hapoel Ramat HaSharon	34	10	11	13	48	47	+1	41
13	Hapoel Nazareth Illit	34	10	10	14	40	44	−4	40
14	Hapoel Jerusalem	34	8	13	13	33	42	−9	37	Playoff 2016-17 Liga Alef
15	Maccabi Yavne	34	9	9	16	43	49	−6	36	Relegated to 2016-17 Liga Alef
16	Maccabi Kiryat Gat (R)	34	5	11	18	27	59	−32	26	Relegated to 2016-17 Liga Alef

Season statistics

Scoring

As of matches played on 19 December 2015.

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Jordan Faucher	Maccabi Herzliya	12
1	Miroslav Antonov	Maccabi Yavne	12
3	Ya'akov Berihon	Hapoel Rishon LeZion	11
3	Kpéhi Brossou	Hapoel Ramat Gan	11
5	Rotem Shmul	Beitar Tel Aviv Ramla	10
6	Branko Mihajlović	Hapoel Petakh Tikva	9
6	Shay Revivo	Hapoel Ashkelon^[A]	9

Source: Israel Football Association ^A Revivo left to Maccabi Sha'arayim at January 2016.

Liga Leumit

Clubs	Beitar Tel Aviv Ramla F.C. Ashdod Hapoel Afula Hapoel Ashkelon Hapoel Bnei Lod Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem Hapoel Nazareth Illit Hapoel Petah Tikva Hapoel Ramat Gan Hapoel Ramat HaSharon Hapoel Rishon LeZion Maccabi Ahi Nazareth Maccabi Herzliya Maccabi Kiryat Gat Maccabi Yavne

Stadia	Afula Illit Stadium Green Stadium Grundman Stadium Haberfeld Stadium HaMoshava Stadium Herzliya Municipal Stadium Ilut Stadium Lod Municipal Stadium Ness Ziona Stadium Ramla Municipal Stadium Sala Stadium Teddy Stadium Winter Stadium Yud-Alef Stadium

Seasons (second level)	1937 1939 1940 1941–42 1946–47 1949–50 1951–52 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

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