Column by Avi Sharafti: (Avi Sarfati, 44 years old, the owner and CEO of the media organization "Ushim Sport", has been a fan of the Maccabi Haifa soccer team since the age of 4 and is currently the soccer commentator for Channel 20).
So.. Kiryat Eliezer Stadium in Haifa (in the past)
26/05/1984 This was my happiest moment as a Maccabi Haifa fan. I was a 9-year-old boy when a year ago I started to love my first love, it's a season I will never forget in my life. Half of the season is complicated, with Beitar Jerusalem in first place leading by 13 points from Maccabi Haifa, which is in the middle of the table. The second half of that season, like a puzzle, the team comes together and from game to game the gap gets smaller and smaller until it is erased as if it didn't exist.
Last cycle in Kiryat Eliezer - Draw or lose and the championship runs away, Ramat Amidar must win to stay in the league, what pressure. My late father and I are sitting in gate 7 behind the gate. Later it turns out that I was the closest to Maccabi Haifa's most important goal ever. The players descend from the stands towards the grass - God will make it end well, 20,000 greens that don't rest for a moment and a pin was impossible to get in.
The confetti is in the air - Haifa is literally painted green when even the grass that was yellow was painted green for the occasion. In the 20th minute, the team in green makes a big little 1:0 by the man with the golden head and the antenna Moshe Selekter. The green volcano explodes - some say that at the moment the gate was occupied, an earthquake 4 on the Shlomo scale was felt - all of Haifa to the north was in the air. From minute 20 - I have no nails
Counting the minutes - Dad, what will happen in the event of a draw, I ask? And a father like a father calms me down - "keep calm today we are taking the championship and nothing will help". We go down to half time 1:0 to us and the heart automatically collapses. At Rambam Hospital, the heart department goes into emergency mode and then they go up to the second half. Let it be over already.
The ears are on the radio with the transistor to hear what is happening with Beitar Jerusalem. The minutes pass and Ramat Amidar realizes that they have nothing to lose and begin to pressure and threaten the late Avi Ran's goal. Ovadia ben Yitzhak the referee of the match does not have mercy on us. So there was no VAR to help and another whistle Illusory that takes a few years off my short life. Approaching the 90th minute, the crowd is already on the fences - there is a championship, one of the fans shouts and immediately everyone jumps on him - shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! We already said it. A few more minutes pass Kibinimt how much longer will he add God knows Ovadia glances at the clock, asks for the ball and that's it - the final whistle sounds!!!
Maccabi Haifa is the champion of Israel for the first time in its history in the 1983-84 season! ! ! … The volcano in green explodes – fences fall in and the crowd comes in to lift the heroes on their shoulders. Dad holds my hand so that I don't get swallowed up by everyone and I say to him: "Dad, I want to go down to the grass." What happened on the grass is a moment that I take with me until my last day.
When they destroyed Kiryat Eliezer, that was the first image that came to my mind. This is a season that turned Maccabi Haifa from nothing into something and positioned it as the soccer capital of Israel for over two consecutive decades and the hegemony passed after a very long time from TA to Haifa. After that historic championship came more championships and cups and Europe, but this season with the coronation game is the most exciting moment
The players who were responsible for this history, in the course of time became my good acquaintances. I promised myself that as long as I can I will do everything to give them the respect they so deserve for the supreme happiness they brought me as a 9-year-old boy and thousands of other green fans throughout the country. Mazel Tov my Maccabi - 35 years, wow, a piece of history. And when you look back it seems like it was just yesterday!
High-rise buildings on the site of the Kiryat Eliezer Stadium as seen today
The soul that was in Maccabi Haifa in 84 will never return. They were men on the field who gave and played from the heart for the symbol of the club.
Hahaha... there were good times.
I was 18 years old, a 2th grade student and what fun it was. What joy, what happiness and what a golden head of Moshe Selekter. I didn't enter the lawn lol. It's a bit funny to call it that because everything there was yellow, ruined by any measure. In the evening we celebrated at Abba Khushi's house in Neve Shanan and all the players came there. I lifted Amed Avokart on my shoulders And what an honor we did there for our beloved greens and we were also joined by the Hapoel Haifa fans who were promoted to the first league and after returning from the game in Ramla with a 1-XNUMX victory. There was then a great camaraderie between the two Haifa clubs.