2017–18 Israeli Premier League Explained

Season:	2017–18
Winners:	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
Dates:	19 August 2017 – 21 May 2018
Matches:	240
Total Goals:	622
League Topscorer:	Dia Saba (24 goals)
Biggest Home Win:
Biggest Away Win:
Highest Scoring:
Highest Attendance:	27,180
Attendance:	1,296,236
Average Attendance:	6,114
Nextseason:	2018–19

The 2017–18 Israeli Premier League, also known as Ligat Winner for sponsorship reasons, was the nineteenth season since its introduction in 1999 and the 76th season of top-tier football in Israel. It began on 19 August 2017 and ended on 21 May 2018.

Teams

A total of fourteen teams are competing in the league, including twelve sides from the 2016–17 season and two promoted teams from the 2016–17 Liga Leumit.

Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Kfar Saba were relegated to the 2017–18 Liga Leumit after finishing the 2016–17 Israeli Premier League in the bottom two places.

Maccabi Netanya and Hapoel Acre were promoted after finishing the 2016–17 Liga Leumit in the top two places. Both returned to league after one-year absence.

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium
Beitar Jerusalem	Jerusalem	Teddy Stadium
Bnei Sakhnin	Sakhnin	Doha Stadium
Bnei Yehuda	Tel Aviv	HaMoshava Stadium, Petah Tikva
F.C. Ashdod	Ashdod	Yud-Alef Stadium
Hapoel Acre	Acre	Acre Stadium
Hapoel Ashkelon	Ashkelon	Sala Stadium
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	Be'er Sheva	Turner Stadium
Hapoel Haifa	Haifa	Sammy Ofer Stadium
Hapoel Ra'anana	Ra'anana	Netanya Stadium, Netanya
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Kiryat Shmona	Kiryat Shmona Stadium
Maccabi Haifa	Haifa	Sammy Ofer Stadium
Maccabi Netanya	Netanya	Netanya Stadium
Maccabi Petah Tikva	Petah Tikva	HaMoshava Stadium
Maccabi Tel Aviv	Tel Aviv	Netanya Stadium, Netanya

Acre Stadium	Doha Stadium	Kiryat Shmona Stadium
Netanya Stadium	HaMoshava Stadium	Sammy Ofer Stadium
Hapoel Ra'anana Maccabi Netanya Maccabi Tel Aviv	valign=top	Bnei Yehuda Maccabi Petah Tikva		valign=top	Hapoel Haifa Maccabi Haifa

Hapoel Acre	Bnei Sakhnin	Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Sala Stadium	Teddy Stadium	Turner Stadium	Yud-Alef Stadium
Hapoel Ashkelon	Beitar Jerusalem	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	F.C. Ashdod

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Manager	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Beitar Jerusalem		Givova	Brown Hotels
Bnei Sakhnin		Givova	Scania
Bnei Yehuda		Kappa	HAP
F.C. Ashdod		Nike	SeeMe
Hapoel Acre		Kappa	Landora Group
Hapoel Ashkelon		Lotto	Albar
Hapoel Be'er Sheva		Puma	Tadiran
Hapoel Haifa		Diadora
Hapoel Ra'anana		Givova
Ironi Kiryat Shmona		Umbro	Ituran
Maccabi Haifa		Nike	Honda
Maccabi Netanya		Lotto	Kesrei Thofa
Maccabi Petah Tikva		Macron	Panorama North
Maccabi Tel Aviv	Jordi Cruyff	—

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to six per team, while only five can be registered to a game.^[1]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6
Beitar Jerusalem	Claudemir	Georginho	Antoine Conte	Marcel Heister	Erik Sabo	Jakub Sylvestr
Bnei Sakhnin	Wanderson	Antonio Mršić	Jordan Faucher	Akpan David Udoh	Abraham Paz
Bnei Yehuda	Mavis Tchibota	Nerijus Valskis	Emilijus Zubas
F.C. Ashdod	Mauricio	Viktor Genev	Karlo Bručić	Blessing Eleke
Hapoel Acre	Dylan Damraoui	Mohamadou Sissoko	Aliko Bala	Bruno Ibeh	Peter Onyekachi
Hapoel Ashkelon	David Manga	Mirko Oremuš	Vladimir Dvalishvili	Dele Aiyenugba	Branislav Jovanović	Milan Smiljanić
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	Tomáš Pekhart	Mihály Korhut	Anthony Nwakaeme	John Ogu	Miguel Vítor	Isaac Cuenca
Hapoel Haifa	Josip Ivančić	Ernestas Šetkus	Risto Mitrevski	Radu Gînsari	Gabriel Tamaș	Rasmus Sjöstedt
Hapoel Ra'anana	Guillermo Vizcarra	Mohamed Aly Camara	Nemanja Nikolić	Emmanuel Mayuka	Emmanuel Mbola
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Marcus Diniz	Didier Brossou	Nigel Hasselbaink	Afonso Taira	Miloš Radivojević	Carlos Cuéllar
Maccabi Haifa	Allyson	Caio	Georgi Kostadinov	Ernest Mabouka	Stefanos Athanasiadis	Etiënne Reijnen
	Leandro Ribeiro	Branko Vrgoč	Tim Heubach	Alhassane Keita	Ali Mohamed	Didier Kougbenya
Maccabi Petah Tikva	Elivelto	Romário	Tomáš Sivok	Johan Martial	Grégory Tadé	Richard Soumah
Maccabi Tel Aviv	Viðar Örn Kjartansson	Cristian Battocchio	Jean-Sylvain Babin	Predrag Rajković	José Rodríguez

In bold: Players that have been capped for their national team.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Tomer Kashtan	End of contract	1 June 2017	Pre-season	Haim Silvas	1 June 2017
Hapoel Ra'anana	Haim Silvas	Released			Dudu Avraham
Bnei Yehuda	Kfir Edri	Signing of permanent manager			Yossi Abukasis
Bnei Sakhnin	Yossi Abukasis	End of contract			Jairo Swirsky	8 June 2017
Maccabi Tel Aviv	Lito Vidigal	Sacked	14 June 2017		Jordi Cruyff	14 June 2017
F.C. Ashdod	Ran Ben Shimon	Released	5 July 2017		Yossi Mizrahi (temporary)	16 July 2017
Bnei Sakhnin	Jairo Swirsky	Sacked	1 August 2017		Ayman Khalaila (temporary)	1 August 2017
F.C. Ashdod	Yossi Mizrahi (temporary)	Signing of permanent manager	3 August 2017		Reuven Atar	3 August 2017
Bnei Sakhnin	Ayman Khalaila (temporary)	Signing of permanent manager	9 August 2017		Felix Naim	9 August 2017
Beitar Jerusalem	Sharon Mimer	Sacked	16 August 2017		Gili Lavanda (caretaker)	16 August 2017
Hapoel Ra'anana	Dudu Avraham	Sacked	16 September 2017	13th	Guy Levy	18 September 2017
Maccabi Petah Tikva	Kobi Refua	Resign	17 September 2017	11th	Sharon Mimer	17 September 2017
Beitar Jerusalem	Gili Lavanda (caretaker)	Caretaking spell over	1 October 2017	1st	Benny Ben Zaken	1 October 2017
F.C. Ashdod	Reuven Atar	Sacked	3 October 2017	14th	Amir Turgeman	10 October 2017
Hapoel Ra'anana	Guy Levy	Sacked	15 October 2017	14th	Meni Koretski	30 October 2017
Hapoel Acre	Shlomi Dora	Sacked	23 October 2017	14th	Eldad Shavit	25 October 2017
Maccabi Haifa	Guy Luzon	Mutual contract termination	9 December 2017	8th	Rob Maas (caretaker)	9 December 2017
Bnei Sakhnin	Felix Naim	Sacked	5 January 2018	8th	Tal Banin	18 January 2018
Hapoel Acre	Eldad Shavit	Resign	16 January 2018	14th	Itzik Twizer	16 January 2018
Maccabi Haifa	Rob Maas (caretaker)	Caretaking spell over	24 January 2018	10th	Fred Rutten	24 January 2018
Hapoel Ashkelon		Sacked	12 February 2018	13th	Messay Dego	14 February 2018
F.C. Ashdod	Amir Turgeman	Sacked	24 April 2018	12th	Yossi Mizrahi (temporary)	24 April 2018

Regular season

Regular season table

Positions by round

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Team \ Round
	7	12	8	6	6	10	5	4	4	3	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	1	2	1	1
	1	1	1	1	1	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2
	13	7	3	3	3	4	3	5	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	2	1	2	1	1	3	1	3	3
	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
	6	8	5	8	4	2	4	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
	3	4	6	9	11	9	10	11	9	7	9	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
	4	6	10	11	10	11	11	8	10	11	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	7	8	8	7	7	8	7	7	7
	9	9	7	4	5	7	8	9	6	8	6	7	7	7	7	7	8	9	7	7	8	8	7	8	9	8
	5	3	4	5	9	6	7	7	7	9	8	9	10	8	8	8	7	8	9	9	9	10	9	9	8	9
	12	5	9	7	8	5	6	6	8	6	7	8	8	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	10
	8	10	13	13	13	13	14	13	13	14	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	12	11	11	11	11	11
	10	13	14	14	14	14	13	12	12	13	14	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	11	12	12	12	12	12
	11	11	12	10	7	8	9	10	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	13	13	13	13	13	13
	14	14	11	12	12	12	12	14	14	12	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14

Source: http://www.football.co.il/

Championship round

Key numbers for pairing determination (number marks position after 26 games)

Rounds
27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	32nd	33rd	34th	35th	36th
1 – 6 2 – 5 3 – 4	1 – 2 5 – 3 6 – 4	2 – 6 3 – 1 4 – 5	1 – 4 2 – 3 6 – 5	3 – 6 4 – 2 5 – 1	6 – 1 5 – 2 4 – 3	2 – 1 3 – 5 4 – 6	6 – 2 1 – 3 5 – 4	3 – 2 4 – 1 5 – 6	6 – 3 2 – 4 1 – 5

Championship round table

Positions by round

Team/ Round	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Team/ Round
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	2	2
	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3
Hapoel Haifa	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4
Maccabi Netanya	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Bnei Yehuda	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Source: http://www.football.co.il/

	2018–19 UEFA Champions League First qualifying round
	2018–19 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round
	2018–19 UEFA Europa League First qualifying round

Relegation round

Key numbers for pairing determination (number marks position after 26 games)

Rounds
27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	32nd	33rd
7 – 11 8 – 13 9 – 12 10 – 14	11 - 14 12 - 10 13 - 9 7 - 8	8 - 11 9 - 7 10 – 13 14 - 12	11 - 12 13 - 14 7 - 10 8 - 9	9 - 11 10 - 8 14 - 7 12 - 13	11 - 13 7 - 12 8 - 14 9 -10	10 - 11 14 - 9 12 - 8 13 - 7

Relegation round table

Positions by round

Team/ Round	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
Team/ Round
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	8	7	8	9	8	7	7	7
Maccabi Petah Tikva	7	8	7	7	7	8	8	8
Hapoel Ra'anana	11	11	11	11	10	9	9	9
	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	10
Bnei Sakhnin	9	9	9	8	11	11	11	11
F.C. Ashdod	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
Hapoel Ashkelon	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13
Hapoel Acre	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14

Source: http://www.football.co.il/

	Relegation to 2018–19 Liga Leumit

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Dia Saba	Maccabi Netanya	24
2	Viðar Kjartansson	Maccabi Tel Aviv	13
3	Eden Ben Basat	Hapoel Haifa	12
	Hanan Maman	Hapoel Haifa/Hapoel Be'er Sheva
	Alon Turgeman	Hapoel Haifa
6	Ben Sahar	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	11
7	Nikita Rukavytsya	Maccabi Haifa	10
	Tomáš Pekhart	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
	Shimon Abuhatzira	Hapoel Raanana
	Nick Blackman	Maccabi Tel Aviv
	Anthony Nwakaeme	Hapoel Be'er Sheva
	Lidor Cohen	Maccabi Petah Tikva
	Omer Atzili	Maccabi Tel Aviv
	Eran Levy	Maccabi Netanya
	Jordan Faucher	Bnei Sakhnin
17	3 different players	2 different teams	9

Source: (Hebrew)http://www.football.co.il/stats

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Round	Reference
Eden Ben Basat	Hapoel Haifa	Beitar Jerusalem	3–3 (A)	16 September 2017	4	^[2]
Dia Saba	Maccabi Netanya	Maccabi Petah Tikva	4–0	2 October 2017	6	^[3]
Alon Turgeman	Hapoel Haifa	Hapoel Acre	4–0	14 October 2017	7	^[4]
Eliran Atar	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Hapoel Acre	5–2	29 October 2017	9	^[5]
Dia Saba	Maccabi Netanya	Maccabi Tel Aviv	4–1	3 April 2018	28	^[6]
Guy Melamed	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	Maccabi Netanya	6–1	21 May 2018	36	^[7]

External links

uefa.com

Notes and References

Web site: Tuchman. Yaniv. Moving to six foreigners in the Premier League. Walla! Sports. he.
News: בדקה ה-94: הפועל חיפה חילצה 3:3 מול בית"ר. In the 94th minute: Hapoel Haifa salvaged 3:3 against Beitar. he. Guy. Ben Ziv. ONE. 16 September 2017.
News: שלושער לסבע, 0:4 למכבי נתניה על מכבי פתח תקווה. Hat-trick for Saba, 4:0 for Maccabi Netanya over Maccabi Petah Tikva. he. Maariv. 2 October 2017.
News: הפועל חיפה הביסה 0:4 את הפועל עכו, שלושער לאלון תורג'מן. Hapoel Haifa defeated Hapoel Acre 4:0, hat-trick for Alon Turgeman. he. Walla!. 14 October 2017.
News: מכבי תל אביב חזרה לנצח עם 2:5 מוחץ על הפועל עכו, שלושער לעטר. Maccabi Tel Aviv won 5:2 against Hapoel Acre, hat-trick for Eliran Atar. he. Walla!. 29 October 2017.
News: דיא והותר: מכבי ת"א הושפלה עם 4:1 לנתניה. Dia and enough, Maccabi Tel Aviv was humiliated 4:1 by Netanya. he. ONE. 3 April 2018.
News: בסטייל: ב"ש נפרדה מברדה עם 1:6 על נתניה. in style: Be'er Sheva farewell from Barda with 6:1 on Netanya. he. ONE. 21 May 2018.