As the squad held a final practice in the run-up to tomorrow's Europa League home tie at 8pm against Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia, Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club launched their official European competition scarf
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad appeared on the pitch at the team's Kiryat Shalom training ground for the "dress rehearsal" in advance of their first match in the group stage of the Europa League tomorrow night at Bloomfield Stadium. The only player missing from the training was midfielder Hassan Abu Zaid, who will be out on loan till January after an agreement was reached with fellow Israeli Premier League club Ironi Ramat Hasharon. During the practice the squad members got their first look at Maccabi Tel Aviv's official Europa League scarf, which will be on offer on the night of the match at MTA shop outlets near gates 4-5 and 10-11 and sold also by club hostesses circulating outside the gate entrances. Tomorrow the squad will spend the day at a hotel and towards evening set off for Bloomfield, which is expected to be filled to the last seat. The final remaining tickets are still available at the "Leann" ticket offices in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff St. and at their telephone centre at number *8780. Once again, the club call upon their many loyal supporters to arrive at the stadium as early as possible to benefit from the entire match experience and avoid the crowds expected in the area immediately surrounding the stadium.
For Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending the match tomorrow a special surprise awaits them, prepared by the club in co-operation with the MTA fan organisation, "Maccabi Fanatics". Spread out across the seats in terraces 7 and 8 will be thousands of yellow and blue placards which together will form a spectacular mosaic background to the entrance of the players onto the pitch at the start of the match. The text revealed in that mosaic remains a secret but it can already be stressed how important it is for the fans seated in those terraces to take care of their specific placard in order that the final result will quite as sensational as intended. Moments before the players appear, the stadium announcer will give the word to lift the placards and the secret text will finally be revealed. At the same time a complementary backdrop will be hoisted at terraces 10-11, presenting Europe with this extraordinary mosaic designed to raise the atmosphere at the stadium to new heights. The club call upon all their fans to join in tomorrow in giving the European enterprise at Bloomfield Stadium a yellow and blue glow that the entire continent will look upon in awe.
In other news, Maccabi Tel Aviv's home tie against Ironi Kiryat Shmona in matchweek 4 of the Israeli Premier League has been set for Saturday September 28th at 8pm and broadcast on the Israeli sports channel Sport 1. Information concerning ticket sales for the match will appear in the course of next week on the official Maccabi Tel Aviv website.
