Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO Martin Bain spoke to the clubs’ website this afternoon about the incidents that have dominated the club over the past month: "It's been a difficult month for everyone involved at Maccabi Tel Aviv, whether it's the players, or it's the fans, or it's the staff. The results of the derby nobody likes to see. The vast majority of fans at Maccabi condemn the small minority that obviously ruined it for everybody at the club. But out of adversity always comes a positive and for me the positive has been in the last few weeks where the real fans have rallied round the club and together we've started to come back to some of the issues that have existed. So you know it's been really disappointing that there was an appropriate chance but last night at Sakhnin, having had dialogue with the supporters, having made our point again very forceful, there were no issues last night and the fans have to be praised for responding to the club. And I only hope they continue to work with the club. And we will prevail and we will make sure that the small minority stop to ruin it for the football club".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F4d6Og-4Xs&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
"From my past experience at football, what I've really seen work at football clubs is that when the vast majority feels they're going to the game and they've been tarnished with the same brush as the small minority, there starts to be a momentum where people want to show how proud they are of their club, want to protect the name and the reputation of the club. And that's very evident in self-policing. And I can see that already happening at Maccabi Tel Aviv, that now when there's an appropriate chance, where there's behaviour we don't want to put up with, then people start to boo the minority, they start to drown out the chants that are inappropriate. That was really really pleasing to see and at the game in Netanya that's exactly what happened. And as a result, unfortunately we've been fined by the IFA but hopefully they'll see sense that actually what really happened was the fact that the majority were drowning out the small minority and the self-policing was coming into effect. Last night at Sakhnin I was really really pleased, as were all my colleagues at the club, to see that the fans actually have responded accordingly. We had no issues at Sakhnin last night. And the fans have to be praised for that in recognition of what we're trying to do".
"Yes, out of the worst there comes a positive and we've got a great spectacle ahead of us on Monday night. Tickets are nearly sold out for the match. The final few are obviously on sale and hopefully we'll be at capacity. To go there as Maccabi Tel Aviv in a wonderful stadium and show the club in the best light is absolutely what the football club needs at the moment. I'm positive that Monday night will be a great spectacle for the club, that the fans will behave appropriately. Pictures will go around Europe of the game, I have no doubt about that, that will actually start to show Maccabi Tel Aviv in the light it should be shown in and not what we've put up with in the last few weeks".
"The one we need to make people realise is available and on sale is the V.I.P. tickets because there are some great facilities at 'Sammy Ofer', great opportunities for companies and businesses to maybe entertain some guests and that people do want to purchase V.I.P. tickets and they should contact the club because there are still a few left for sale".
"There's no doubt that 'Sammy Ofer' is a leading stadium in Europe. It's up there with the best stadiums I've been in and I think I've been in quite a few over the years. The facilities are second to none and when I went to the recent game against Bosnia the atmosphere was fantastic. No complaints, or there should be no complaints from anyone in Israel about how good the 'Sammy Ofer' is. It's an excellent stadium. But this club is a very very big club and on Monday night there's a key message and the key message is that we will be able to fill a stadium like 'Sammy Ofer' ten times over. Maybe not ten times over but week on week. We should have a stadium like 'Sammy Ofer' and it's something that hopefully as the club progresses we can work towards".
