Maccabi Petah Tikva F.C.

For the handball team, see Maccabi Petah Tikva (handball).

Maccabi Petah Tikva
Full nameMaccabi Avshalom Ironi Petah Tikva Football Club
Short nameMPT
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
GroundHaMoshava Stadium, Petah Tikva, Israel
Capacity11,500
OwnerAvi Luzon
ChairmanAvi Luzon
ManagerDan Roman
LeagueIsraeli Premier League
2023–24Israeli Premier League, 8th of 14
Websitem-pt.co.il

Maccabi Petah Tikva F.C. (Hebrew: מכבי פתח תקווה; "Maccabi Avshalom Ironi Petah Tikva F.C., מועדון ספורט מכבי אבשלום עירוני פתח תקווה) is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Petah Tikva. It is part of the Maccabi World Union for international Jewish sports clubs.

They are the current Israel State Cup holders, having beaten Hapoel Be'er Sheva 1–0 in the final for their third title.

History

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1912: First steps in blue & white

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The club was founded in 1912 by a group of Jewish students from Petah Tikva, who were studying in the Ottoman city of Constantinople (many of them would later serve in the Ottoman army during World War I), making it the second oldest Jewish football club in Israel after Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was formed in 1906.[1]

1920s: Pre-independence

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In 1921, after the death of founder member Avshalom Gissin during the 1921 Palestine riots, the club added his name to the club's name, and the club was named "Maccabi Avshalom Petah Tikva".[1][2] In 1927, the club moved to the Maccabi Petah Tikva Ground, where they would play until the 1970s.[1]

1930s: First major title

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In 1935 they won their first piece of silverware, beating Hakoah Tel Aviv 1–0 in the cup final.[3] In 1939 they reached the final again, but lost 2–1 to Hapoel Tel Aviv. The following year they won the Haaretz tournament.

1950s: Second major title and goals galore

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The club was included in the new Israeli League in 1949, and finished fifth in the inaugural post-independence league table.[4] In the next season (1951–52, there was no 1950–51 edition) they finished as runners-up to champions Maccabi Tel Aviv and also won the State Cup, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 1–0. In 1953–54 (1952–53 was also not played) they also finished second with Eliezer Spiegel finishing as the league's top goalscorer on 16 goals from 22 matches.

1960s: The dark times

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After several seasons of mid-table finishes, Maccabi finished bottom of the table in 1962–63 (a season in which the club were deducted 3 points due to suspicions of bribery during a game with Maccabi Jaffa)[4] and were due to be relegated to Liga Alef. However, the Israel Football Association decided to expand the league from 12 to 15 clubs and they were spared demotion. However, the club was relegated for the first time at the end of the 1965–66 season after finishing second from bottom.

After two seasons in Liga Alef (one of which – 1966–68 Liga Leumit – lasted for two years) the club won won the Liga Alef Super Cup and returned to the top division in 1968–69 as Liga Alef champions for the first time.

1970s: We will be back!

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At the end of the 1970–71 season the club was relegated again after finishing second from bottom, but made an immediate return as Liga Alef champions (1971–72) for the second time.

At the beginning of 1972–73 season, the IFA organized a third-tier stand-alone cup competition (considered below the league and the state cup) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The cup was won by Maccabi Petah Tikva, who had beaten Maccabi Haifa 4–2 on penalties (1–1 a.e.t.) in the final.

In 1974–75 season, although Maccabi finished bottom, they were again reprieved from relegation due to league expansion.[4] However, after a repeated performance in 1976–77 they did relegated for the third time. Following another immediate return to the top flight through a second place promotion (1977-78), the club maintained several mid-table finishes and have remained in top division for 10 seasons.

1980s: Mediocrity at its finest

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At the beginning of 1982-83 season the IFA established Lilian Cup, a season opening tournament for the top 4 clubs in Liga Leumit the year before, considered a third-tier league cup tournament (in parallel to the Israel Super Cup, which was played at the end of the season, and the Toto Cup, which was played throughout the season, mostly on weekdays). Maccabi finished 1984–85 season in fourth place and gained a place in the 1985 Lilian Cup edition. The club reached the final, losing 3–1 (a.e.t.) to Beitar Jerusalem.

The club finished 1987–88 season at the bottom of the table and relegated for the fourth time. In 1989–90 and 1990–91 the club won the Toto Cup. After 3 seasons the club won the second-tier league championship for the third time (1990–91) and returned to the top division, remaining there for 21 seasons.

1990s: First steps in Europe

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In 1991–92 season Maccabi finished seventh place, qualifying for the Intertoto Cup group for the first time (due to Hapoel Petah Tikva qualification for the Cup Winners' Cup). The club played in the Group stage with Czech side Slavia Prague, German top-club Bayer Leverkusen and the Israeli Maccabi Netanya. The whole stage was scheduled for July with Maccabi playing its first two matches in Petah Tikva Municipal Stadium, losing 1–3 against Slavia and winning 3–2 against Leverkusen. The next two games were against Netanya, Maccabi drew 0–0 in Netanya Stadium and 2–2 at home ground. At the following matches Maccabi was defeated 0–3 by Slavia in Stadion Eden and drew 1–1 against Leverkusen in Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. However, the club finished only third place in the group with five points.

In 1994-95 season the club reached the top division's Toto Cup final for the first time, beating 2–1 Maccabi Tel Aviv in Ramat Gan Stadium.

In 1996–97 season Maccabi finished fourth place, qualifying for the Intertoto Cup group stage for the second time. The whole stage was scheduled for June-July, with Maccabi losing 1–3 to German side Köln in Ramat Gan and deafeting the Austrian side Aarau 1–0 in Stadion Brügglifeld. The club also drew 0–0 twice, first against the Irish Cork City in Kiryat Eliezer Stadium and then against the Belgian giants Standard Liège in Stade Maurice Dufrasne. Eventually, the club finished second place in the group with five points and failed to advance for the semi-finals.

2000s: Europe's glory nights

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In 2000-01 season the club made a 3–2 (a.e.t) sensational win over Maccabi Haifa and reached the cup final for the first time in 49 years (fourth time overall), losing 3–0 to Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The 2004–05 season marked the first time the club competed in UEFA Cup qualifiers after finishing third place of the league in the previous season. Maccabi began its way in the second qualifying round against Cyprus side AEK Larnaca, losing the first-leg 0–3 in GSP Stadium. Two weeks later, the club enjoyed a moment of glory in Europe, winning the second-leg 4–0 in Ramat Gan Stadium and advancing to the UEFA Cup first round after 4–3 on aggregate. However, the first-leg of the tie against Dutch side SC Heerenveen in Israel was cancelled by UEFA due to a baggage handlers strike,[5] and the club lost the second-leg 5–0 (also on aggregate) in Abe Lenstra Stadion.

Maccabi's most significant achievement of the decade came in the 2004–05 season when the club finished second in the league and reached the group stage of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. In the second qualifying round the club defeated Macedonian side FK Baskimi 5–0 in Skopje stadium and 6–0 in Ramat Gan, advancing to the first round after 11–0 on aggregate.

Maccabi entered as an unseeded team due to low coefficient rating (7.218), and drawn a seeded team such as Partizan Belgrade with much higher coefficient rating (30.012). The Serbian side won the first-leg 2–0 in Ramat Gan. Two weeks later, at the second-leg in Partizan Stadium, Maccabi made the impossible. In contrary to all assessments and expectations, with a lot off faith and ability above all, they won 5–2 and 5–4 on aggregate. In a sensational comeback with striker Omer Golan scoring a hat-trick (21', 44', 48').

The victory sent Maccabi to be a member of Group B, along with Palermo, Brøndby, Lokomotiv Moscow and Espanyol. However, these elite clubs proved to be too much for Maccabi to handle, and they lost all four of group stage matches, scoring just 1 goal while conceding 9.

2020s: It's been 72 years...

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After a defeat to Hapoel Beer Sheva in the 2020 cup final, the club reached the final again during the Israel State Cup campaign. Once more facing Hapoel Beer Sheva, the club managed to lift the trophy, securing their third cup win after 72-years drought.

Players

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Current squad

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As of 1 June 2024[6]
No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF Cyprus CYP Andreas Karo
5 DF Bosnia and Herzegovina BIH Renato Gojković
7 FW Slovenia SVN Luka Štor
8 FW Israel ISR Anas Mahamid
9 MF Israel ISR Liran Hazan
11 FW Israel ISR Or Roizman
12 DF Israel ISR Alon Azugi
14 MF Israel ISR Tamir Glazer
15 MF Israel ISR Idan Vered
16 DF Israel ISR Yarden Cohen
17 DF Israel ISR Aviv Salem
18 MF Israel ISR Eden Shamir
19 DF Israel ISR Gal Maatouk
No. Pos. Nation Player
20 DF Israel ISR Ido Cohen
23 FW Moldova MDA Vitalie Damașcan
25 DF Bulgaria BUL Plamen Galabov
26 DF Israel ISR Guy Dezent
27 MF Israel ISR Harel Shasha
28 MF Israel ISR Niv Yehoshua
32 DF Israel ISR Mohammed Hindy
34 GK Argentina ARG Marco Wolff
72 MF Israel ISR Eyal Golasa
77 FW Israel ISR Amir Altoury
80 MF Israel ISR Ilay Tzeiri
98 GK Israel ISR Tomer Livitanov

Out on loan

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No. Pos. Nation Player
— DF Israel ISR Shavit Elgaby (at Maccabi Kabilio Jaffa until 30 June 2025)
— FW Israel ISR Eyal Inbrum (at Hapoel Kfar Shalem until 30 June 2025)
No. Pos. Nation Player
— FW Ukraine UKR Daniel Joulani (at Bnei Sakhnin until 30 June 2025)

Other people under contract

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No. Pos. Nation Player
— GK Israel ISR Maor Erlich
— DF Israel ISR Gal Gabi Ma'atuk
— DF Israel ISR Ellay Yacob Shafiki
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF Israel ISR Tomer Benbenishti
— MF Israel ISR Dan Kaduri
— FW Israel ISR Idan Vaknin

Retired numbers

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Main article: Retired numbers in association football


Stadium

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Main article: HaMoshava Stadium

The club played at the Maccabi Petah Tikva ground between 1926 and the 1970s. Since they left the old Maccabi Petah Tikva ground they shared the 6,768-capacity Petah Tikva Municipal Stadium with city rivals Hapoel. At the end of 2011, the club moved to HaMoshava Stadium.

Notable coaches

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Honours

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Domestic competitions

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League

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Cups

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European competitions

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Other

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  • Magen Shimshon
    • Runners-up: 1925
  • Magen Ha'aretz
    • Winners: 1941

Youth Division

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European record

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Matches

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Key
  • P = preliminary round
  • Q = qualification round
  • R = round
  • PO = Play-off round
  • KOPO = Knockout round play-off
Season Competition Round Club Home Away Aggregate
1992–93 Intertoto Cup Group stage Czech Republic Slavia Prague 1–3 0–3 3rd
Germany Bayer Leverkusen 3–2 1–1
Israel Maccabi Netanya 2–2 0–0
1997–98 UEFA Intertoto Cup Group stage Germany Köln 1–3 — 2nd
Austria Aarau — 1–0
Republic of Ireland Cork City 0–0 —
Belgium Standard Liège — 0–0
2004–05 UEFA Cup Q2 Cyprus AEK Larnaca 4–0 0–3 4–3
R1 Netherlands Heerenveen Cancelled[a] 0–5 0–5
2005–06 UEFA Cup Q2 North Macedonia Baskimi 6–0 5–0 11–0
R1 Serbia and Montenegro Partizan 0–2 5–2 5–4
Group stage Italy Palermo 1–2 — 5th
Denmark Brøndby — 0–2
Russia Lokomotiv Moscow 0–4 —
Spain Espanyol — 0–1
2006–07 UEFA Intertoto Cup R2 Bosnia and Herzegovina Zrinjski 1–1 3–1 4–2
R3 Cyprus Ethnikos 0–2 3–2 3–4
2024–25 UEFA Europa League Q2 Portugal Braga 0–5 0–2 0–7
UEFA Conference League Q3 Romania CFR Cluj 0–1 0–1 0–2
  1. ^ Due to a general strike in Israel, the first leg was cancelled by UEFA.[10]

By competitions

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  • Correct as of 16 August 2024
Competition S Pld W D L GF GA GD
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League 3 13 4 0 9 21 28 −7
UEFA Conference League 1 2 0 0 2 0 2 −2
UEFA Intertoto Cup 3 14 4 6 4 16 20 −4
Total 6 29 8 6 15 37 50 −13

References

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  1. ^ a b c Maccabi Petah Tikva: From 1908 to Today Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine Asher Goldberg, m-pt.co.il (in Hebrew)
  2. ^ Maccabi Avshalom Do'ar HaYom, 26 June 1928, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
  3. ^ a b Israel – List of Cup Finals RSSSF
  4. ^ a b c Israel – List of Final Tables RSSSF
  5. ^ Uefa make U-turn BBC Sport, 22 September 2004
  6. ^ "Player List".
  7. ^ A Players Revolt Deposed Spiegel from Maccabi P.T.[permanent dead link‍] Herut, 19 May 1957, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
  8. ^ Maccabi P.T.'s Manager Arrived from England Hadshot HaSport, 12 January 1958, p. 1 (in Hebrew)
  9. ^ A Romanian Manager to Maccabi P.T. Ma'ariv, 11 January 1959, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
  10. ^ "עמיר פרץ: "ליבי עם אוהדי פ"ת. מקווה שהקבוצה תנצח"". ynet.co.il. Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
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