Owing to the stormy weather anticipated for the weekend, only the U19s and 17s will be playing on Saturday
Due to the particularly nasty weather anticipated in most of Israel for the coming weekend, the Israeli Football Association have announced that all matches in the country's youth leagues will be postponed, with the exception of the Under-19s and 17s. If weather conditions prohibit any of those matches as well, formal announcements will be made at the time. Maccabi's Under-19s are scheduled to host Hapoel Tel Aviv for a derby to be broadcast on Israeli sports channel 55 at noon on Saturday. On instructions from the police, the match has been moved for security reasons from Kiryat Shalom training ground to the Municipal Stadium in Ramle. At 11am, Maccabi's Under-17s will appear at the Kiryat Haim training ground to face Hapoel Haifa on matchday 20 of the national U17 Premier League.
Chairman of the Football Association, Retem Kemer, released the following statement: "In regard to all the weather predictions, and after consultation with all of the relevant bodies, it would appear that the stormy weather obliges us to postpone the matches in question. There is so much concern for the health of the players, for the pitch conditions and for the difficulties spectators will encounter in getting to the matches that we see no other option. Many of the teams have expressed similar sentiments and we wish to avoid causing them any further hardship in terms of security as well as avoiding disappointment to the fans or harm to any of our players".
