Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club (; Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv) is an Israeli professional football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club.
Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as the HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association, it is the oldest football club in Israel. With the establishment of the city of Tel Aviv in 1909, the club changed its name to Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 1922, it became the first Jewish football club to participate in local competitions. The meaning of the name Maccabi forms an integral part of the character of the team, which took the Star of David as their logo to represent the Jewish people. Maccabi Tel Aviv have won more titles than any other Israeli club, winning 26 League Championships, 24 State Cups, 8 Toto (League) Cups, and 2 Asian Champion Club Tournaments before Israel were expelled from the AFC in 1974.
Maccabi Tel Aviv is the only football team that has never been relegated from the Israeli Premier League, the only Israeli club to have achieved a domestic treble, and one of only three Israeli teams ever to progress to the UEFA Champions League group stage. The club is named after the Maccabees and invests in the development and nurturing of young talent: the club runs three football academies in the Tel Aviv area as part of its youth programme, working with over 750 children aged 6–15, as well as running 17 youth teams with 400 players between 9 and 19 years old. These teams tend to compete very successfully in local and national leagues.
History
Before 1950
In the early 1920s, despite the absence of an organised league, Maccabi Tel Aviv were known as the strongest football team in Palestine and were invited to numerous friendly matches, even against British teams of the local Mandate. Official tournaments began taking place in 1928 with the establishment of the Football Association and FIFA's recognition of Israeli football. In 1929, the team won their first trophy after beating Maccabi Jerusalem F.C. 4–0. Maccabi took the championship again one year later with a 2–1 victory over the British Army's 48th regiment and a third time in 1933, when Hapoel Tel Aviv were beaten, 1–0.
In 1936, the club was invited to play in the United States. On their way there, Maccabi played in France, losing 2–0 to Racing Paris and 3–1 to Lille. In the United States, Maccabi defeated the All-star team of New York City in front of 50,000 in Yankee Stadium. Maccabi also defeated the American Soccer League team in Brooklyn and Philadelphia on their home ground 1–0 and also played in Canada, where they drew 1–1 with Toronto All-Stars. Maccabi continued their tour in the US and lost, 3–2, to St. Louis Stars and the Boston Celtics.
After returning from the United States, Maccabi players went on strike because they had not been paid. In 1937, after a year of strike action, the Football Association accepted their demands and the team ended their strike. In that year, Maccabi Tel Aviv also won their first league title. In 1939, after the start of World War II, Maccabi won their second championship. At the end of the season, Maccabi went to another tour, this time to Australia where they were known as the "Palestine" team and occasionally the Maccabi Palestine team. They played 18 games, winning 11, losing 5 and drawing 2. The games were against State sides (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia), regional sides and five "tests" against the Australian national team, winning one, drawing one and losing three.
In 1941 Maccabi won their first "double", Winning both the league and State Cup, beating Hapoel Tel Aviv, 2–1, in the final. Between 1941 and 1945, the league was suspended because of the war, but Maccabi continued playing friendly matches. In 1946, the league was still suspended but the State Cup returned with Maccabi beating Hapoel Rishon LeZion 6–0 on aggregate in the final. In 1947, the league resumed and Maccabi won it as well as reaching the cup final. In the match against Beitar Tel Aviv at the Hatikva Neighborhood Stadium Maccabi were winning 3–2 when the referee disallowed a goal by Beitar. The Beitar players and their supporters stormed at the referee and Beitar defender Yom-Tov Mansherov broke the Cup. As a result, the referee ended the game and Maccabi were awarded a technical victory, thus winning a second double. Forty-five years later the cup was found in Petah Tikva.
1950s
This decade is considered Maccabi Tel Aviv's "Golden Age", in which they won five championships and four Israel Football Association Cups. The "Golden Age" actually began with the establishment of the State of Israel, with Maccabi Tel Aviv winning the league title in the 1949–50 season. The deciding match of the season was the second Tel Aviv derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv, which Maccabi won, 1–0, thanks to a goal from striker Yosef "Yosale" Merimovich that sealed Maccabi Tel Aviv's first post-colonisation championship title. Merimovich was just one member of a squad of outstanding players that left Maccabi Tel Aviv unchallenged in their domination of the Israeli Premier League during the 1950s. That squad included the likes of defenders Itzhak Schneor and Eli Fuchs, goalkeeper Avraham Bandouri, striker Zvi Studinski and of course the club's legendary centre forward Yehoshua "Shiye" Glazer. Glazer, who won the top scorer title in 1952 with 27 goals, is considered Maccabi Tel Aviv's greatest ever striker and was the club's highest goal scorer until Avi Nimni broke his record in 2003.
The 1951–52 season was Maccabi's second league title after the establishment of the State, which they won by eight points ahead of Maccabi Petah Tikva, though they lost the IFA Cup final. That loss only inspired them to win an historic first double in the 1953–54 season, once again winning the league ahead of Maccabi Petah Tikva. That year's Cup final provided them with the opportunity to put in one of their most devastating performances, crushing their opponents Maccabi Netanya 4–0 with a brace from Glazer and individual goals from Studinski and midfielder Israel Halivner.
It was the following season that the great Hapoel Petah Tikva team of midfielder Nahum Stelmach and associates burst on the scene and captured the championship from Maccabi Tel Aviv after a down to the wire finish. Still, Maccabi Tel Aviv weren't prepared to surrender all the titles that season and came up trumps in a 3–1 victory over the same Hapoel Petah Tikva in the IFA Cup final. Maccabi went on to beat them to the title in two more seasons, 1955–56 and 1957–58, completing their fifth National Championship in the first decade of the modern state of Israel. That final season title was complemented by a double, with Maccabi beating Hapoel Haifa in the IFA Cup final, 2–0.
The following season Maccabi Tel Aviv won their second consecutive IFA Cup in a final that will be remembered as notable in the entire history of the competition. Maccabi appeared to be headed to victory with a 4–0 lead just ten minutes from time. But within five of those final ten minutes Hapoel Petah Tikva pulled back three of those goals, creating one of the most exciting finales in IFA Cup history. But in the end Maccabi held on to celebrate yet another IFA Cup triumph.
1960s
Following the "Golden Years" of the 1950s, Maccabi Tel Aviv found themselves as the new decade began challenged and ultimately eclipsed by the emergent HaPoel Petach Tikva, who during the late 1950s and early 1960s won five consecutive league titles. The second of those championships, in 1960, came at Maccabi's expense, with the Yellows leading the table on the last day of the season only to disappointingly lose their final match to Hapoel Haifa thereby handing the championship to Hapoel Petah Tikva. The outstanding player of Maccabi's season had been Rafi Levi, one of the greatest strikers in the club's history, who was the league's leading goal scorer with 19 goals. A year later the Brazilian club Santos visited Israel, along with their legendary player, Pelé, for a friendly match against a side composed of the best players from both Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Petah Tikva. But even the combined forces of the two best clubs in the country were no match for the Brazilians, who won, 3–1.
After a number of unremarkable seasons, the 1960s saw the return of Maccabi Tel Aviv with one of their greatest coaches, Jerry Beit haLevi. He had served the club as a player in the 1930s and, with the exception of one year, managed the club for the 10 years between 1947 and 1957. Under his guardianship Maccabi Tel Aviv slowly returned to form and in the 1963–64 season won the Israel Football Association Cup after a second replay against Hapoel Haifa, which Maccabi won, 2–1. The following season Maccabi Tel Aviv repeated the feat by exactly the same score, this time in a dramatic extra time victory over Bnei Yehuda that included goals by midfielders Moshe Asis and Rafi Baranes. In the 1966–67 season Maccabi added a third IFA Cup. This time the opponent in the final were city rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv whom Maccabi defeated by the very same 2–1 score line, with goals from midfielder Uri Kedmi and striker Rachamim Talbi.
While the Cup competition was held as scheduled that year, the league was interrupted by the Six-Day War and was extended into 1968. Now coached by their former midfielder Israel Halivner, Maccabi Tel Aviv won their first and only championship of the decade after a combined 60 match weeks, leading Hapoel Petah Tikva by three points at the top of the Israel Premier League table. But by far the most memorable event of the decade was Maccabi's success in the Asian Champion Club Tournament in 1969, becoming the second Israeli football club to win an international competition in the country's history. Now managed by former striking great Yossele Merimovich, Maccabi beat South Korean side Yangzee FC in extra time through a goal by striker Dror Bar Nur.
A less successful decade for Maccabi Tel Aviv, but the club still managed to win one championship and three Israel Football Association Cups. Among the great names of the decade were midfielder Nissim Bachar, defender Meir Nimni, defender Menachem "Miko" Bello, defender Tzvika Rosen, goalkeeper Haim Levin, midfielder Moshe Asis, striker Rafi Levi and midfielder Giora Spiegel.
1970s
By Maccabi Tel Aviv standards, the 1960s had not been a particularly successful decade. With the coming of the 1970s, all that was about to change. The very first year of the decade was a stellar indication of that change as the team, under the able leadership of David Schweitzer, won an historic double. The Israeli Football Association (IFA) Cup final was won with a 2–1 victory over Maccabi Netanya. The league title on the other hand was ensured only on goal difference, but one that was built in part upon one of the finest performances in the club's history, a 5–0 thrashing of city rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Tel Aviv derby. On a rainy day at the end of January 1970, 20,000 spectators saw Maccabi midfielder Giora Shpiegel score a hat-trick to lead his side to victory. But despite that defeat, Hapoel stayed neck-and-neck with Maccabi until the last week and it was Hapoel who found themselves in second place on goal difference when the season reached its conclusion.
The following season was a weak one for Maccabi Tel Aviv that saw them finish tenth in the league table. But just one year later they were fully back on track winning their second championship of the decade in the 1971–72 season. One of the stars of that season, and one of the greatest strikers in the club's history, was Dror Bar Nur, who scored 16 of the club's 45 goals in the league and added two more in other competitions.