Israeli Premier League

The Israeli Premier League (Hebrew: ליגת העל, Ligat Ha`Al, lit. 'The Super League'), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with its second division Liga Leumit. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing between 33 and 36 matches each, totalling 240 matches in every season.

Israeli Premier League

Organising body	Israel Football Association
Founded	1999; 24 years ago (1999)
Country	Israel
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	14 (since 2013–14)
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Liga Leumit
Domestic cup(s)	Israel State Cup Toto Cup (Al) Israel Super Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa Conference League
Current champions	Maccabi Haifa (15th title) (2022–23)
Most championships	Maccabi Tel Aviv (23 titles)
TV partners	Charlton Sport, Sport5.co.il
Website	football.co.il
Current: 2022–23 Israeli Premier League

The competition formed in 1999 following the decision of the Israel Football Association to form a new league. It is also ranked 21st in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years.^[1]

Since 1932, a total of 15 clubs have been crowned champions of the Israeli Football League. Of the thirty clubs to have competed since the inception of the Israeli Premier League in 1999, six have won the title: Beitar Jerusalem (twice), Hapoel Be'er Sheva (three times), Hapoel Tel Aviv (twice), Maccabi Haifa (seven times), Maccabi Tel Aviv (six times), and Ironi Kiryat Shmona (once). The current champions are Maccabi Haifa, who won the 2021–22 season.

Background

The Israeli Premier League was founded in 1999 to replace its predecessor Liga Leumit (which became the second division) when the Israel Football Association decided to reshuffle all the leagues in hopes of improving competition. In its first season there were 14 clubs; the top thirteen clubs from the 1998–99 season and the top place club from the Liga Artzit (then, the third division). That season three clubs were relegated and one from Liga Leumit was promoted.^{[citation needed]}

Competition

There are 14 clubs in the league. At the end of each season, the two lowest-placed teams are relegated to Liga Leumit while two highest-placed teams of Liga Leumit are promoted in their place. For the 2012–13 season the league was decreased from 16 to 14 clubs as a result of reforms passed by the IFA on 27 June 2011.^[2]

The participating clubs first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 26 matches.

Following this, the top six teams play in a championship playoff, where they meet each other twice. Upon its conclusion, the first place team wins the Israeli championship and qualifies to participate in the first qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League. The runners-up and the third-placed teams qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.

In addition, the Israeli State Cup winners qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.

If the State Cup winners are also one of the teams to finish in the league's top three places then the fourth-placed team will also play in Europa League. In case the State Cup winners also win the Israeli Premier League then the fourth-placed league team will play in second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.

In addition, the bottom eight teams will play each other once to avoid two relegation spots.

Clubs

A total of 30 clubs have played in the Israeli Premier League from its inception in 1999 and the start of the 2022–23 season. For a list of winners and runners-up of the Israeli Premier League since its inception, and top scorers for each season, see List of Israeli football champions.

Three clubs have been members of the Israeli Premier League for every season since its inception. This group is composed of Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabi Haifa, and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Members of the 2022–23 season

F.C. Ashdod

Hapoel Be'er Sheva

Hapoel Hadera

Hapoel Haifa
Maccabi Haifa

Hapoel Jerusalem
Beitar Jerusalem

Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Maccabi Netanya

Bnei Sakhnin

Hapoel Tel Aviv
Maccabi Tel Aviv

Maccabi Bnei Reineh

Sektzia Ness Ziona

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Locations of the 2022–23 Israeli Premier League teams

The following 14 clubs will compete in the Israeli Premier League during the 2022–23 season.

Club	Position in 2021–22	First season in the Israeli Premier League	Number of seasons in the Israeli Premier League	First season of current spell in Israeli Premier League	Top division titles	Last top division title
Beitar Jerusalem^[a]^[b]	10th	1999–2000	23	1999–2000	6	2007–08
Bnei Sakhnin	6th	2009–10	17	2020–21	0	Never
F.C. Ashdod	9th	2009–10	22	2013–14	0	Never
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	2nd	2001–02	17	2009–10	5	2017–18
Hapoel Hadera	8th	2018–19	5	2018–19	0	Never
Hapoel Haifa^[b]	11th	1999–2000	17	2009–10	1	1998–99
Hapoel Jerusalem ^[b]	12th	1999–2000	3	2021-22	0	Never
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	7th	2003–04	14	2007–08	1	2011–12
Hapoel Tel Aviv^[b]	5th	1999–2000	22	2018–19	13	2009–10
Maccabi Bnei Reineh	1st Liga Leumit	2022–23	1	2022–23	0	Never
Maccabi Haifa^[a]^[b]	1st	1999–2000	23	1999–2000	14	2021–22
Maccabi Netanya	4th	2003–04	21	2017–18	5	1982–83
Maccabi Tel Aviv^[a]^[b]	3rd	1999–2000	23	1999–2000	23	2019–20
Sektzia Ness Ziona	2nd Liga Leumit	2019–20	2	2022–23	0	Never

^ ^a ^b ^c Never been relegated from the Israeli Premier League
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f One of the original Israeli Premier League teams

Sponsorship

In recent years, the league has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:

1999–2002: Pelephone – a mobile phone company (Ligat Pelephone)^[3]
2005–2010: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Toto)
2010–2016: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Winner)^[4]
2016–2018: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Ha'al)^[5]
2018–2019: Japanika – Asian restaurant (Ligat Japanika)^[6]
2019–2022: Tel Aviv Stock Exchange – Stock Exchange (Ligat Habursa Leniyarot Erech)^[7]
2022–2024: ONE ZERO – Digital Bank (Ligat ONE ZERO)^[8]

Number of foreigners

Teams are limited to six foreign players per team. Special circumstances such as Druze players from the Golan (no citizenship) or cases such as that of Toto Tamuz, do not count against the foreign player limit. In addition, players who play in the league for 6 consecutive years do not count against the foreign player limit. Also, Jewish players and players who are married to Israelis are exempt from these restrictions, as they are entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Broadcast Rights

Television

Israeli Premier League games are broadcast live on Sport 1, Sport 1 HD, and Sport 2 channels, with the big match of the week which is reserved to be shown by Sport 5 and Channel 1 HD network television. There is also a league review show on Saturday nights at Sport 5 channel.

Abroad, rights to broadcasting in Hebrew are owned by The Israeli Network which broadcasts the matches in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Panama, Costa Rica and in Europe.

In the United Kingdom, William Hill broadcasts matches live with English commentary on their online television service, William Hill TV.

Radio

The rights of broadcasting on the radio belongs to Radio Tel Aviv since 2011, which broadcast alongside Radio Haifa, Radio Darom, Radio Galei Zahal and Radio Darom 101.5 in a show called Saturday of Football which also broadcasts live on ONE TV channel.

Internet

The big match of the week is shown on the Channel 1 website. Since 2010, games summaries are shown online by Ynet, ONE and Sport 5.

Cellular

Since 2012, ONE owns the broadcasting rights, which was previously owned by Sport 5.

Revenue

Main sources of revenue for the clubs:

Broadcast rights
Ticket sales
Merchandise
Toto Winner – The Israeli Sports Betting Council
Sponsorship

UEFA league ranking

In European Leagues:

Country ranking

UEFA League Ranking for the 2018–2023 period:^[9]

19. (19) Croatian Football League (25.400)
20. (15) Super League Greece (25.225)
21. (22) Israeli Premier League (25.000)
22. (21) Cypriot First Division (24.475)
23. (23) Allsvenskan (23.750)

Source: UEFA Coefficients Graphs, 2023 UEFA Country Ranking

Champions

For the complete list read the main article.

Israeli Premier League (1999–present)

Maccabi Tel Aviv celebrating their league winners title at the end of the 2012–13 season

When the Israeli Premier League became the top division of Israeli football in 1999–2000, Liga Leumit became the second division. Since then, only six clubs have won the title; Hapoel Tel Aviv, Ironi Kiryat Shmona, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem are sometimes referred to as the "Big Four" of Israeli football.^[10]

Having won nine titles in the league's 23 seasons, the most successful club during this period is Maccabi Haifa; during the same period Maccabi Tel Aviv have added six to their total while Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv have won two championships each. Although Hapoel Tel Aviv have only finished top of the league twice since 1999—in 1999–2000 and ten years later in 2009–10—they have won the double on both occasions.

This achievement was matched by Beitar Jerusalem in 2007–08. Ironi Kiryat Shmona won their first championship during the 2011–12 season, thereby becoming the first northern title-winners. Maccabi Tel Aviv then won three titles in a row, including a Treble in 2014–15.

Key

	Won the Israel State Cup during the same season.
	Won the League Cup during the same season.
^§	Won both cups during the same season.
(titles)	A running tally of the total number of championships won by each club is kept in brackets.

v t e Season	Winners (titles)	Runners-up	Third place	Top scorer	Goals	Notes
1999–2000	Hapoel Tel Aviv (12)^{^[a]}	Maccabi Haifa	Hapoel Petah Tikva	Assi Tubi (Maccabi Petah Tikva)	27	–
2000–01	Maccabi Haifa (6)	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Hapoel Haifa^{^[b]}	Avi Nimni (Maccabi Tel Aviv)	25	^[13]
2001–02	Maccabi Haifa (7)	Hapoel Tel Aviv^{^[b]}	Maccabi Tel Aviv^{^[a]}	Kobi Refua (Maccabi Petah Tikva)	18	–
2002–03	Maccabi Tel Aviv (18)	Maccabi Haifa^{^[b]}	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Yaniv Abargil (Hapoel Kfar Saba) • Shay Holtzman (Ironi Rishon LeZion / F.C. Ashdod)	18	–
2003–04	Maccabi Haifa (8)	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Maccabi Petah Tikva^{^[b]}	Ofir Haim (Hapoel Be'er Sheva) • Shay Holtzman (F.C. Ashdod)	16	–
2004–05	Maccabi Haifa (9)	Maccabi Petah Tikva	F.C. Ashdod	Roberto Colautti (Maccabi Haifa)	19	–
2005–06	Maccabi Haifa (10)^{^[b]}	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Beitar Jerusalem	Shay Holtzman (F.C. Ashdod)	18	–
2006–07	Beitar Jerusalem (5)	Maccabi Netanya	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Yaniv Azran (F.C. Ashdod)	15	–
2007–08	Beitar Jerusalem (6)^{^[a]}	Maccabi Netanya	Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Samuel Yeboah (Hapoel Kfar Saba)	15	–
2008–09	Maccabi Haifa (11)	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Beitar Jerusalem^{^[a]}	Barak Yitzhaki (Beitar Jerusalem) • Shimon Abuhatzira (Hapoel Petah Tikva) • Eliran Atar (Bnei Yehuda)	14	–
2009–10	Hapoel Tel Aviv (13)^{^[a]}	Maccabi Haifa	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Shlomi Arbeitman (Maccabi Haifa)	28	–
2010–11	Maccabi Haifa (12)	Hapoel Tel Aviv ^{^[a]}	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Toto Tamuz (Hapoel Tel Aviv)	21	–
2011–12	Ironi Kiryat Shmona (1)^{^[b]}	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Bnei Yehuda	Achmad Saba'a (Maccabi Netanya)	20	–
2012–13	Maccabi Tel Aviv (19)	Maccabi Haifa	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Eliran Atar (Maccabi Tel Aviv)	22	–
2013–14	Maccabi Tel Aviv (20)	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	Ironi Kiryat Shmona^{^[a]}	Eran Zahavi (Maccabi Tel Aviv)	29	–
2014–15	Maccabi Tel Aviv (21)^{§^[c]}	Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Hapoel Be'er Sheva		27	–
2015–16	Hapoel Be'er Sheva (3)	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Beitar Jerusalem		35	–
2016–17	Hapoel Be'er Sheva (4) ^{^[b]}	Maccabi Tel Aviv		Viðar Örn Kjartansson (Maccabi Tel Aviv)	19	–
2017–18	Hapoel Be'er Sheva (5)	Maccabi Tel Aviv^{^[b]}		Dia Saba (Maccabi Netanya)	24	–
2018–19	Maccabi Tel Aviv (22)^{^[b]}	Maccabi Haifa	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	Ben Sahar (Hapoel Be'er Sheva)	15	–
2019–20	Maccabi Tel Aviv (23)	Maccabi Haifa	Beitar Jerusalem^{^[b]}	Nikita Rukavytsya (Maccabi Haifa)	22	–
2020–21	Maccabi Haifa (13)	Maccabi Tel Aviv^{§^[c]}	Ashdod	Nikita Rukavytsya (Maccabi Haifa)	19	–
2021–22	Maccabi Haifa (14)^{^[b]}	Hapoel Be'er Sheva^{^[a]}	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Omer Atzili (Maccabi Haifa)	20	–
2022–23	Maccabi Haifa (15)					–

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Won the Israel State Cup during the same season.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Won the League Cup during the same season.
^ ^a ^b Won both cups during the same season.

"Big Four" dominance

"Big Four" since the start of the Israeli Premier League^[14]
Season	BEI	HTA	MHA	MTA
1999–2000	5	1	2	6
2000–01	5	2	1	4
2001–02	10	2	1	3
2002–03	9	3	2	1
2003–04	9	5	1	2
2004–05	4	9	1	8
2005–06	3	2	1	6
2006–07	1	4	5	3
2007–08	1	7	5	6
2008–09	3	2	1	6
2009–10	5	1	2	3
2010–11	11	2	1	3
2011–12	9	2	5	6
2012–13	10	3	2	1
2013–14	7	4	5	1
2014–15	4	8	5	1
2015–16	3	9	4	2
2016–17	3	14	6	2
2017–18	3	–	10	2
2018–19	7	8	2	1
2019–20	3	5	2	1
2020–21	10	11	1	2
2021–22	10	5	1	3
2022–23	8	10	1	3

Since the 2015–16 season, the Big Four's Dominance has been challenged by Hapoel Be'er Sheva, winning 3 successive championships, they also finished runners up in the 2021-22 season.

Notably, three of the big four teams all finished near or at the bottom of the table at some point. (Hapoel Tel Aviv has been the only one to be relegated so far)

Top scorers by season

Season	Player	Goals	Club
1999–2000	Assi Tubi	27	Maccabi Petah Tikva
2000–01	Avi Nimni	25	Maccabi Tel Aviv
2001–02	Kobi Refua	18	Maccabi Petah Tikva
2002–03	Yaniv Abargil	18	Hapoel Kfar Saba
2002–03	Shay Holtzman	18	Ironi Rishon LeZion / FC Ashdod
2003–04	Ofir Haim	16	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
2003–04	Shay Holtzman	16	FC Ashdod
2004–05	Roberto Colautti	19	Maccabi Haifa
2005–06	Shay Holtzman	18	FC Ashdod
2006–07	Yaniv Azran	15	FC Ashdod
2007–08	Samuel Yeboah	15	Hapoel Kfar Saba
2008–09	Barak Yitzhaki	14	Beitar Jerusalem
	Shimon Abuhatzira	14	Hapoel Petah Tikva
	Eliran Atar	14	Bnei Yehuda
2009–10	Shlomi Arbeitman	28	Maccabi Haifa
2010–11	Toto Tamuz	21	Hapoel Tel Aviv
2011–12	Ahmad Saba'a	20	Maccabi Netanya
2012–13	Eliran Atar	22	Maccabi Tel Aviv
2013–14	Eran Zahavi	29
2014–15		27
2015–16		35
2016–17	Viðar Örn Kjartansson	19
2017–18	Dia Saba	24	Maccabi Netanya
2018–19	Ben Sahar	15	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
2019–20	Nikita Rukavytsya	22	Maccabi Haifa
2020–21	Nikita Rukavytsya	19
2021–22	Omer Atzili	20

Individual records

Appearances

As of 20 December 2022

Rank	Player	Appearances
1	Arik Benado	573
2	Rafi Cohen	546
3	Walid Badir	531
4	Alon Harazi	526
5	Gidi Damti	519
6	Liran Strauber	513
7	Shlomo Iloz	509
8	Miko Bello	498
9	Yigal Antebi	494
10	Alon Hazan	483

Top scorers