Hapoel Tel Aviv FC Preview

By: Matt | September 16th, 2009

Celtic head to Israel tomorrow to begin their Europa League campaign. Celtic and Hapoel Tel Aviv are similar clubs in their respective countries, both being one of the more successful clubs in their domestic leagues. Hapoel Tel Aviv has won twelve championships and twelve State Cups, making them the country’s second most successful club after city rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv. 1967 was also one of the greatest years in Hapoel Tel Aviv history, as it is with Celtic, as that year the club won the Asian Club Championship. Of course now Hapoel Tel Aviv and the rest of the Israeli League is in the UEFA region, but that is a topic for another blog and another time. The team plays in Bloomfield Stadium, which holds 17,500 fans.

Ever since their founding, Hapoel Tel Aviv have been associated with far-left politcs. They were originally established in 1923, but was disbanded soon after. The club was re-formed in 1925, and then for a third time in May 1926. In 1927 the club merged with Allenby F.C., giving the club its modern form. The club’s leftist lean comes from the fact that when founded, it was part of the Hapoel sports association which was affiliated with the Histadrut trade union, and supporters of the club were often referred to as communists.

Of course, the club’s history is linked to the political situation in the Middle East region. After being in the Palestinian League before the creation of the Israeli state, Hapoel Tel Aviv joined the Israeli League. They won their first Israeli League title in 1956-57 and their first State Cup in 1960. In the 1965-66 season Hapoel Tel Aviv won the title again, and qualified for the first Asian Club Championships. In the tournament Hapoel Tel Aviv were given byes all the way to the final, where they beat Selangor 2-1 to become Asia’s first club champions. They reached the final again the next season, but lost to an Iranian club. Can you imagine a Israeli and Iranian club meeting today in a major football final? To say it’d be rivalry seems a bit of an understatement.

Since being in the UEFA region, Hapoel’s first European qualification came in 1997-1998 season, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In their first 1998-99 UEFA Cup run, Hapoel knocked out FinnPa, before losing on penalties to Strømsgodset. In the 2001-02 UEFA Cup Hapoel reached the quarter-finals after knocking out Chelsea, Lokomotiv Moscow and Parma. Although they beat A.C. Milan 1-0 in the home leg (a match which had to be played in Bloomfield Stadium in Cyprus after Milan refused to play in Israel), Hapoel lost the away leg 2-0.

In the Europa League qualifiers, Hapoel defeated FK Teplice, buoyed by their 2-1 victory away from home, before drawing 1-1 in the return leg back in Israeli. The club has two wins and two draws in their last four matches, though strangely the two wins come on the road while the two draws were in Tel-Aviv. So perhaps this is another opportunity for Celtic to continue their now 50% win percentage away from Europe this year.

On the Celtic end, of course Marc Antoine Fortune will not be available for this match with his knee injury. He will likely not be back at leas until October. However, the rest of Celtic’s roster will be available to Tony Mowbray, including Aiden McGeady. McGeady of course missed the last league game against Dundee United due to suspension. Scott McDonald is likely to feature in a lone strike role, with McGeady and another winger, though not necessarily Shaun Maloney after his poor play last weekend, as well as likely Scott Brown helping McDonald by pushing up. Tony Mowbray was critical of Landry N’Guemo’s performance on the weekend, and we might see another change in the middle. Along with N’Guemo, ToMo can choose from Marc Crosas and Barry Robson for the middle.

After being the first “British” team to win the European Cup, here’s to hopefully being the first team to win the new Europa League.