Lower-tier playoffs: good for drama, but bring a coffee By Uri Misgav | Apr. 22, 2013 | 5:31 PM
The Israel Football Association's highest court will decide the future of the Maccabi Petah Tikva soccer club on Sunday. The IFA's disciplinary court, a lower tribunal, deducted the team three Premier League points; Maccabi Petah Tikva is being held accountable for unruliness on its home field two weeks ago. During the scuffle, the team's goalkeeping coach head-butted Hapoel Haifa player Ali Khatib; then as Khatib writhed in pain on the ground, a Petah Tikva staff member kicked him.
The decision will have direct repercussions on the status of the Luzon family in Israeli sports. IFA chairman Avi Luzon has kept mum since the melee. His younger brother Amos, who owns a share of Maccabi Petah Tikva, has been lobbying vociferously for the IFA to rescind the penalty, or at least reduce its severity.
Amos' main message to the media regarding this controversy is that the press is persecuting his family because of its success. When Avi vied for the IFA chairmanship seven years ago against Aryeh Zeif, the race was perceived as a contest between Israel's elite and an upstart. Luzon won the race because he secured the support of smaller clubs and the Maccabi sports organization was forced to back him, but he was never really accepted among soccer's veteran power-brokers.
People involved in Israeli soccer have been complaining for years about how no important decision or change can be implemented in the sport without the backing of Amos Luzon, who is not an elected figure. The disciplinary court, which is ostensibly a tribunal independent of the IFA, has moved to isolate the Luzon brothers. Avi Luzon has cultivated strong relations with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ). Its president, Michel Platini, is a close friend of his. But in Israel, that doesn't interest anyone. In this country, it would be hard to find a single sports fan who doesn't support severe sanctions against Petah Tikva, even though the disciplinary court never provided an argument justifying the three-point deduction decision.
The Luzon family is paying the price not only because of this current controversy, but because of its sons' sin of arrogance in recent years regarding Israeli soccer. Blinded by power, the family apparently indulged in nepotism in the appointment of a nephew, Guy, to manage the national youth team. A few years ago, Avi Luzon was acquitted after he insulted a referee during a youth game. Before then it was standard practice that a referee's match report cannot be appealed; but a precedent was set for the IFA chairman. Avi's brother Itzik was suspended for three months due to a similar infraction, based on the same referee's report.
Maccabi Petah Tikva is liable to be relegated to the second-tier National League. This would be a severe blow to the Luzon family. The club brings together 1,200 youths, and is considered one of the country's leading youth clubs. Still, Petah Tikva's downturn would satisfy sports fans in the country and cause them to feel that nobody is bigger than the game itself. Avi and Amos' reputations and stature will be damaged.
Meantime, police investigations are proceeding. One investigation, pertaining to suspicions about Avi's influence over soccer referees, seems frivolous; the other relates to suspicions of financial irregularity in a transfer deal by which Omer Damari moved from Maccabi Petah Tikva to Hapoel Tel Aviv.
This is the end of an era. If up to now the Luzon family's moves have been watched through a magnifying glass, today a microscope is being used to scrutinize the family. The slightest error on the family's part will cause an uproar. At this point, the family members have to decide whether to get out of the sport when their activities are at a peak, or fight to restore their reputation and honor. Everyone awaits their decision. The IFA court will decide on Sunday whether to give the family a chance to mend its ways, or bring the saga to an end.
Some thoughts from a worried Israeli: GL was good for his family club of Maccabi Petakh Tikva. He utterly failed at much bigger Hapoel Tel Aviv, did okay with Israel u21 (sorry but beating England is not that big deal any more) and the jury is out about SL. In between he likes to get in people faces, sometime in a vulgar fashion (boarding on the racist). He likes his football simple but if his motivation technique won't work, I can see trouble.
His uncle is on UEFA board and his agent is Dudu Dahan, a guy who can sell anybody and anything to Belgian football. My guess is that the first rumour came from the family or Dahan, don't know why yet but hey, week later he is at The Valley.
It's very early days, and there is still plenty of time for this chap to prove me wrong, but I'm getting the same uneasy feeling from his demeanour & press conference as I got from Pardew at the start of his time at the Valley.
I warmed to Riga pretty quickly because he felt like a 'Charlton type' of personality. Peeters was a bit abrasive but honest so I didn't really take a dislike to him but this Luzon geezer seems a bit arrogant and slimey.
I thought Parky was a good fit for us personality wise, but it didn't really help him much so maybe it wont matter if Luzon is a complete knobhead but, I dunno, something really doesn't feel good about this appointment to me.
Some thoughts from a worried Israeli: GL was good for his family club of Maccabi Petakh Tikva. He utterly failed at much bigger Hapoel Tel Aviv, did okay with Israel u21 (sorry but beating England is not that big deal any more) and the jury is out about SL. In between he likes to get in people faces, sometime in a vulgar fashion (boarding on the racist). He likes his football simple but if his motivation technique won't work, I can see trouble.
His uncle is on UEFA board and his agent is Dudu Dahan, a guy who can sell anybody and anything to Belgian football. My guess is that the first rumour came from the family or Dahan, don't know why yet but hey, week later he is at The Valley.
Some thoughts from a worried Israeli: GL was good for his family club of Maccabi Petakh Tikva. He utterly failed at much bigger Hapoel Tel Aviv, did okay with Israel u21 (sorry but beating England is not that big deal any more) and the jury is out about SL. In between he likes to get in people faces, sometime in a vulgar fashion (boarding on the racist). He likes his football simple but if his motivation technique won't work, I can see trouble.
His uncle is on UEFA board and his agent is Dudu Dahan, a guy who can sell anybody and anything to Belgian football. My guess is that the first rumour came from the family or Dahan, don't know why yet but hey, week later he is at The Valley.
Hope he will prove us wrong
When you say "boarding on the racist", can you expand please?
I only posted on this thread yesterday alarmed by Desert Red saying:
' In between he likes to get in people faces, sometime in a vulgar fashion (boarding on the racist).'
Now a lot can be lost in translation as it were, but from the internet you can see Luzon is excitable (the U21 game running around, the interaction with fans, the accusation of official bias against Standard de Liege are examples), but if there are any examples of racist behaviour Desert Red can you expand on this?
So far my impression of Guy Luzon personally, based only on internet clips, and yesterdays press conference, is very negative indeed. He comes across to me as someone with the air of a spoilt child, a bit of a judgemental bully, as someone who will not take responsibility, and 'it's never his fault'. If the background landscape is credible regarding goings on in Israel with his relatives, suggestions of nepotism, and having an agent, Dudu (who may basically be a truth spinner of epic proportions, and has mesmerised Mr Duchatelet), then it adds to my worries.
But racist?
Last season I chatted on a couple of occasions to Dean Rosenthal, Ronnie Rosenthals son who was at the training ground acting as an agent for Bobson Bowling and Kurtis Cumberbatch. Dean introduced himself as 'Belgian/Israeli', and purported to be very friendly with Duchatelet and his family. Incidentally Dean Rosenthal was an absolutely charming gent when we chatted, but he was persuasive and full on, bigging his players up, and well into the churn of players that agents thrive on, and much less interested in the actual clubs. When I told Dean that I witnessed his fathers first game for Liverpool, when he scored a brilliant hat trick against us at Selhurst Park he was surprised, and didn't know his dad had made his debut against us, but other aspects of his dads career he had detailed knowledge of (e.g. the miss against Aston Villa). My impression was not someone who cared much for how individual clubs might do, but enjoying the great game of football manoeuvring, and getting a cut when players change clubs.
So if we now have a manager whose horizons are about bestriding football clubs in different arenas, who has a utilitarian attitude to clubs and players, who is a young man on the make for himself, his family and his agent before his club, then I am worried about who this bloke may actually be. I don't feel sorry for him, I don't feel he is to be mollycoddled. I am worried that he might express racist attitudes.
Even though others have said lay off Katrien because she is merely Rolands mouthpiece, it hasn't stopped Katrien's behaviour and character being brought into question on this site, well the same goes for Guy Luzon. Just because Guy Luzon is propelled into the position of 'head coach' at Charlton Athletic, it does not mean his character is immune from scrutiny in such a public position, he sells himself as a grown up, so he has to deliver as a grown up. If what he delivers is 80 points by the end of the season whilst behaving with decency then brilliant, I will be first in line to shake his hand.
Don't think Rosenthal's hattrick at SP was his debut.
Perfect hattrick though, left foot, right foot and header.
EDIT: "Rosenthal made his debut as a 70th minute sub on March 31, 1990 in a 3–2 league win over Southampton at Anfield. On April 11 he scored a hat-trick on his full debut in 4–0 win against Charlton Athletic at Selhurst Park"
Interestingly he played 54 times for Standard, scoring 24 goals.
I was at that game, in fact if memory serves the first three times I saw Liverpool play beat us one of their players got a hat-trick. Grrrr. That's what made Lisbies triple at The Valley so much sweeter
About GL style: When he fell out with some journalists in Israel, he used some nasty words about their origin (Ashkenazi). Still at the U21 he was liked by all the players, so I hope it was only one case.
It's weird looking back on this one. Peeters was a horrible little man who helped force out Michael Morrison who he thought couldn't play football (currently a key part of a team pushing for promotion to the Prem and has played 234 games at Championship level since leaving us) and put together one of the least interesting styles of football I've ever seen. After he got sacked was one of the real low points of supporting Charlton (of many), losing 5-0 away at Watford without a manager in place because we'd forgotten to get ours a work permit. I think that was the first time it really felt like the Roland experiment was universally accepted by the fanbase as something that was going to slowly bleed the club.
After that though it actually became pretty funny. We started winning games, Luzon put Bulot on the wing and he turned into a footballer, we had the legendary Tony Watt shielding moment against Forest, Chris Eagles came in and randomly looked like a quality footballer every so often, Church scored two goals in two games, and we had Lepoint's incredible full debut against Cardiff doing whatever the hell he felt like. We were even 1-0 up against Millwall up to the 79th minute. When I think back to that half of the season my overwhelming memory is of laughing my arse off at what was going on. Luzon brought chaos, but in a kind of fun way
LIttle man? The bloke was a giant and an absolute ticking fruit loop time bomb. Couple of times I thought on the bench he was on the verge of completely losing it and beating up someone from the opposition. Brentford away rings a bell
would love to see what he’d make of Gilbey, Williams, Maddison & co dipping out of tackles!
Gonna have to go back and see what I said when he was sacked now!
LIttle man? The bloke was a giant and an absolute ticking fruit loop time bomb. Couple of times I thought on the bench he was on the verge of completely losing it and beating up someone from the opposition. Brentford away rings a bell
would love to see what he’d make of Gilbey, Williams, Maddison & co dipping out of tackles!
Gonna have to go back and see what I said when he was sacked now!
He was a very little man. He might have been tall and aggressive but the way he bitched about players in training, thinking he could get away with it because he spoke in another language and whined and moaned about everything made him seem petty and small.
Didn't Luzon join in with a bundle on the pitch when we scored against Hull? Bloke was barking mad. Watching the Leeds manager Bielsa yesterday crouching reminded me of Luzon.
LIttle man? The bloke was a giant and an absolute ticking fruit loop time bomb. Couple of times I thought on the bench he was on the verge of completely losing it and beating up someone from the opposition. Brentford away rings a bell
would love to see what he’d make of Gilbey, Williams, Maddison & co dipping out of tackles!
Gonna have to go back and see what I said when he was sacked now!
Was it Brentford at home? He wanted to stick one on Uwe Rosler I think?
Comments
His uncle is on UEFA board and his agent is Dudu Dahan, a guy who can sell anybody and anything to Belgian football. My guess is that the first rumour came from the family or Dahan, don't know why yet but hey, week later he is at The Valley.
Hope he will prove us wrong
I warmed to Riga pretty quickly because he felt like a 'Charlton type' of personality. Peeters was a bit abrasive but honest so I didn't really take a dislike to him but this Luzon geezer seems a bit arrogant and slimey.
I thought Parky was a good fit for us personality wise, but it didn't really help him much so maybe it wont matter if Luzon is a complete knobhead but, I dunno, something really doesn't feel good about this appointment to me.
I sincerely hope this doesn't happen.
' In between he likes to get in people faces, sometime in a vulgar fashion (boarding on the racist).'
Now a lot can be lost in translation as it were, but from the internet you can see Luzon is excitable (the U21 game running around, the interaction with fans, the accusation of official bias against Standard de Liege are examples), but if there are any examples of racist behaviour Desert Red can you expand on this?
So far my impression of Guy Luzon personally, based only on internet clips, and yesterdays press conference, is very negative indeed. He comes across to me as someone with the air of a spoilt child, a bit of a judgemental bully, as someone who will not take responsibility, and 'it's never his fault'. If the background landscape is credible regarding goings on in Israel with his relatives, suggestions of nepotism, and having an agent, Dudu (who may basically be a truth spinner of epic proportions, and has mesmerised Mr Duchatelet), then it adds to my worries.
But racist?
Last season I chatted on a couple of occasions to Dean Rosenthal, Ronnie Rosenthals son who was at the training ground acting as an agent for Bobson Bowling and Kurtis Cumberbatch. Dean introduced himself as 'Belgian/Israeli', and purported to be very friendly with Duchatelet and his family. Incidentally Dean Rosenthal was an absolutely charming gent when we chatted, but he was persuasive and full on, bigging his players up, and well into the churn of players that agents thrive on, and much less interested in the actual clubs.
When I told Dean that I witnessed his fathers first game for Liverpool, when he scored a brilliant hat trick against us at Selhurst Park he was surprised, and didn't know his dad had made his debut against us, but other aspects of his dads career he had detailed knowledge of (e.g. the miss against Aston Villa). My impression was not someone who cared much for how individual clubs might do, but enjoying the great game of football manoeuvring, and getting a cut when players change clubs.
So if we now have a manager whose horizons are about bestriding football clubs in different arenas, who has a utilitarian attitude to clubs and players, who is a young man on the make for himself, his family and his agent before his club, then I am worried about who this bloke may actually be. I don't feel sorry for him, I don't feel he is to be mollycoddled. I am worried that he might express racist attitudes.
Even though others have said lay off Katrien because she is merely Rolands mouthpiece, it hasn't stopped Katrien's behaviour and character being brought into question on this site, well the same goes for Guy Luzon. Just because Guy Luzon is propelled into the position of 'head coach' at Charlton Athletic, it does not mean his character is immune from scrutiny in such a public position, he sells himself as a grown up, so he has to deliver as a grown up. If what he delivers is 80 points by the end of the season whilst behaving with decency then brilliant, I will be first in line to shake his hand.
Perfect hattrick though, left foot, right foot and header.
EDIT: "Rosenthal made his debut as a 70th minute sub on March 31, 1990 in a 3–2 league win over Southampton at Anfield. On April 11 he scored a hat-trick on his full debut in 4–0 win against Charlton Athletic at Selhurst Park"
Interestingly he played 54 times for Standard, scoring 24 goals.
playbeat us one of their players got a hat-trick. Grrrr. That's what made Lisbies triple at The Valley so much sweeterwould love to see what he’d make of Gilbey, Williams, Maddison & co dipping out of tackles!
Gonna have to go back and see what I said when he was sacked now!
Bloke was barking mad.
Watching the Leeds manager Bielsa yesterday crouching reminded me of Luzon.
cant believe only 6 years ago, feels longer
On purpose 😩😩😩😩