Year Founded: 1924

Stadium: Sammy Ofer Stadium (30,000)

Head Coach: Tal Benin – A former Maccabi Tel Aviv player who won two Israel State Cups and a league championship while playing with the Yellow-and-Blue, took over as coach from Reuven Atar last February. Benin was able to save the team from being relegated last year and started fresh this 2015/16 season.

Players who left: Hamdi Salihi, Steven Cohen, Roie Shukrani, Tosaint Ricketts, Maharan Abu Riya and Or Ostaynd

Players arrived: Anas Dabbur, Hanan Maman, Tomer Swissa, Bruno Pinheiro, Miki Vazao, Eli Elbaz, Ali Khatib, Ahed Azam, Adrian Rotchet,

Key player: Hanan Maman

The midfielder came to the club from Beitar Jerusalem and has admirably filled Or Ostaynd’s shoes to lead Hapoel Haifa. Maman controls the flow of the game for the dolphins in the middle of the pitch and has scored one goal while assisting on another so far this year. The 26 year-old will once again be the man in charge of distributing the ball to the offense for the home side this Saturday especially since Tomer Swissa will not be available.

How has their year been to date:

Tal Benin’s club started off the season on the right foot with a 1:0 away win at Hapoel Akko, but they were unable to keep up the positive momentum throughout the past couple of months. They lost in the last minute to Hapoel Beer Sheva this past Matchday and will enter the match with Maccabi in 11th place, just two points shy of the relegation zone.