Sports in the shadow of war: the UEFA administration announced today (Thursday) that European soccer games will not be held in Israel until further notice, due to the war in the south. Consequently, the coming games of Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the European leagues have been put off.
According to an announcement by the European sports organization, the game between Maccabi Haifa and Villarreal set to take place next week, is now delayed until December 6. The conference league game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zorya Luhansk, meant to take place on October 26, will be delayed until November 25.
The statement also clarified that the cessation of games in Israel is until further notice, with teams playing in European leagues asked to find alternate stadiums outside of Israel for home games until things get back to normal. There were many cases of Israeli teams who held games in Cyprus when the security situation didn’t allow them to play in Israel, especially in the beginning of the 2000s during the Second Intifada.