Israeli Premier League


The Israeli Premier League, officially The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange League for sponsorship purposes, 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.
The competition formed in 1999 following the decision of the Israel Football Association to form a new league. It is also ranked 23rd in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, ahead of the Belarusian Premier League and Kazakhstan Premier League.
Since 1923, a total of 14 clubs have been crowned champions of the Israeli Football League. Of the [|twenty-nine clubs to have competed] since the inception of the Israeli Premier League in 1999, seven have won the title: Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Ironi Kiryat Shmona. The current champions are Maccabi Tel Aviv, who won the 2019–20 season.

Background

The Israeli Premier League was founded in 1999 to replace its predecessor Liga Leumit 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. That season three clubs were relegated and one from Liga Leumit was promoted.

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.
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 first qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League.
In addition, the Israeli State Cup winners qualify for the second qualifying round of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa 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 first qualifying round.
In addition, the bottom eight teams will play each other once to avoid two relegation spots.

Clubs

A total of 29 clubs have played in the Israeli Premier League from its inception in 1999 and the start of the 2020–21 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 for 2020–21

The following 14 clubs will compete in the Israeli Premier League during the 2019–20 season.
Club
Position
in 2018–19		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
7th1999–200021st1999–200062007–08
Bnei Yehudab5th1999–200019th2015–1611989–90
F.C. Ashdod12th2009–107th2013–140Never
3rd2001–0215th2009–1052017–18
Hapoel Haifab11th1999–200015th2009–1011998–99
Hapoel Hadera6th2018–192nd2018–190Never
Hapoel Kfar Saba1st Liga Leumit1999–20007th2019–2011981–82
Ironi Kiryat Shmona10th2003–0412th2007–0812011–12
Hapoel Ra'anana9th2009–108th2013–140Never
Hapoel Tel Avivb8th1999–200020th2018–19142009–10
Maccabi Haifaab2nd1999–200021st1999–2000122010–11
Maccabi Netanya4th2003–0418th2014–1551982–83
Maccabi Tel Avivab1st1999–200021st1999–2000222018–19
Sektzia Nes Tziona2019–201st2019–200Never

a: Never been relegated from the Israeli Premier League

b: 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:
Teams are limited to six foreign players per team. Special circumstances such as Druze players from the Golan 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:
In European Leagues:



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from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/2020 color:bl1 shift: text: "Seasonal Coefficients Ranking Graph"

List of champions

For the complete list read the main article.

Israeli Premier League (1999–present)

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.
Having won seven titles in the league's 21 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.
A running tally of the total number of championships won by each club is kept in brackets.

"Big Four" dominance

Since the past few seasons, the Big Four Dominance has been challenged by 3 successive championships for Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

Top scorers by season

All-time table

The All-time Israeli Premier League table is a cumulative record of all match results, points and goals of every team that has played in the Israeli Premier League since its inception in 1999. The table that follows is accurate as of the end of the 2019–20 season. Teams in green are part of the 2020–21 Israeli Premier League. Numbers in bold are the record numbers in each column.
Club
1Maccabi Haifa216973661671641134'671463126575'
2Maccabi Tel Aviv217003651671681125616509544
3Hapoel Tel Aviv2065230318616398064433610812621
4Beitar Jerusalem2169128518422294481612825
5Maccabi Petah Tikva19648229186233740781–41873112
6Bnei Yehuda19622212167243713792–7980312
7Hapoel Be'er Sheva154842231191427205671537883121
8F.C. Ashdod20646200177269750911–16177711
9Maccabi Netanya19584203162219736787–5177123
10Bnei Sakhnin15510155152213524664–1406072
11Hapoel Haifa15482183144187567621–5459713
12Ironi Kiryat Shmona12378146109123478421575471121
13Hapoel Petah Tikva13448135115198548678–13013
14Hapoel Acre82707281110288389–1012
15Hapoel Ra'anana82366470102224305–812621
16Hapoel Kfar Saba82375676105237349–1124
17Hapoel Rishon LeZion5180414198195316–1211642
18Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon310632235197154–571191
19Maccabi Herzliya3105252456113180–67992
20Hapoel Ashkelon310120255680159–79852
21Hapoel Ramat Gan310319295595161–662
22Hapoel Hadera26922163143–59––168241
23Hapoel Nof HaGalil2662020267193–22801
2426612213358100–42572
25Maccabi Ahi Nazareth26815134073143–702
26Sektzia Nes Tziona133881723–46––3532–––132
27Maccabi Kiryat Gat13376203458–24271
28Hapoel Jerusalem13966273382–49241
29Hapoel Tzafririm Holon13844302585–60161

League or status at 2020–21:
Ligat HaAl
Liga Leumit
Liga Alef
Liga Bet
Liga Gimel
Clubs that no longer exist