Maccabi Sha'arayim F.C.

Maccabi Sha'arayim

Full name	Maccabi Sha'arayim Football Club
Founded	1950
Ground	Maccabi Sha'arayim Stadium, Rehovot
Capacity	1,200
Chairman	Eldad Perri
Manager	Kobi Refua
League	Liga Alef South
2014–15	2nd
Home colours Away colours

Maccabi Sha'arayim (Hebrew: מכבי שעריים‎) is an Israeli football club from the city Rehovot, currently playing in Liga Alef.

The club spent the past seven seasons in the top division from 1963 to 1969, and a single season in 1985–86.

History

The club was promoted to Liga Leumit (then the top division) for the first time in 1963. In their first season in the league they finished 11th out of 15. The following season the club finished sixth, which remains their highest ever league position.

In the 1965-66 season they narrowly avoided relegation, finishing one place above the relegation zone. In 1969 Maccabi reach the cup final for the first (and to date only) time, but lost 1-0 to Hakoah Ramat Gan.^[1] In the same season they finished second bottom of the league and were relegated back to Liga Alef.

The final match of the 1971-72 season saw the club have a chance to return to the top flight, but they lost 2-1 to Hapoel Marmorek, which were promoted instead.^[2] Two years later they qualified for the promotion/relegation play-offs, but failed to win any of their five matches and finished bottom of the group.

At the end of the 1977-78 season they finished bottom of Liga Artzit (the second division) and were relegated to Liga Alef (now the third tier).

At the end of the 1983–84 season they won Liga Alef South division and returned to Liga Artzit, and won a second consecutive promotion in the following season, returning to Liga Leumit for the first time in 16 years. However, they finished bottom, and were relegated back to Liga Artzit.

The club dropped back into the third tier at the end of the 1992-93 season, and were relegated to the fourth tier at the end of the 2000-01 season, before dropping into Liga Bet, the fifth tier, at the end of the 2005–06 season. At the end of the 2011–12 season the club returned to Liga Alef (now the third tier), following a victory of 2-1 against Hapoel Azor in the promotion play-off.^[3]

Players

Current squad

As of 26 January 2016

No. Position Player 1 GK Doron Rozenkovic 4 DF Dor Azulay 5 DF Haim Malka 6 DF Tal Bublil 7 FW Dudu Ben Shushan 8 FW David Gomez 9 MF Shay Revivo 10 FW Gil Itzhak 11 FW Avi Malka 15 MF Salim Tuama

No. Position Player 16 MF Ben Butbul 18 MF Shay Abutbul 19 DF Dedi Ben Dayan 20 MF Ilan Rankevic 22 GK Sapir Tsalvianski 23 DF Ran Berkovic 26 DF Yogev Ben Simon 30 MF Gal Elkanati 55 DF Dor Shamir 77 FW Bar Shalom

Notable former players

Adiv Sharabi Alexsander Sutzu Ami Gubes Amir Guz Arie Flaishman Arik Gilrovic Avi Cohen Avi Pas Avishay Levi Baruch Eliezer Benyamin Lam

Danny Albert Danny Gomberg David Fridman Ehud Idan Eyal Haim Eyal Golan Eitan Shalom Eldad Dahari Gay Tuviak Gur Cohen Haim Madhala

Itzik Izmirli Itzhak Mizrahi Itzik Swisa Jorge Cembal Kobi Hassan Kobi Nachtailer Ofir Afjin Oren Kehat Mahran Lala Maor Sinay Menahem Iris

Miki Ben Shitrit Miki Michaeli Moshe Bzozak Moshe Zeiton Moti Haimovic Nati Azaria Nir Nachum Nir Shitrit Rafi Segal Rami Martziano Shlomo Kirat

Simha Gad Tamir Tzuman Yehud Benodis Yaish Swisa Yossi Gordana Yossi Shpitzer

Honours

• Third tier
  • Champions: 1955–56, 1959–60, 1983–84, 2015–16
• Fourth tier
  • Champions: 2011–12

References

1. Israel - List of Cup Finals RSSSF
2. The Rehovot derby is here again Doublepass, 18.9.2013 (Hebrew)
3. Sha'arayim promoted to Liga Alef after beating Azor One, 10.5.2012 (Hebrew)

External links

• Club website
• Club Official facebook page
• Maccabi Sha'arayim Israel Football Association (Hebrew)