The TASE Premier League will launch this season’s playoff phase when play gets underway on Saturday.
This is the 17th consecutive season in which a concluding playoff phase follows two phases of regular home and away fixtures in the 14-team Premier League. In the playoffs, the league splits into two sections and the top six teams battle for the title in two more rounds, while the bottom eight play to avoid relegation.
A playoff format was introduced in 1987-88 and it has undergone several changes over the years with the aim of making the final part of the season more exciting. This season, Maccabi are part of the upper section for the 15th time.
One of the two seasons in which Maccabi were in the bottom section was during the inaugural playoffs in 1988 and the first-ever fixture was a 1-1 draw against Beitar Jerusalem, when Motti Iwanir scored for Maccabi.
Since then, Maccabi have played 134 matches in the playoff phase and the overall record is 69 wins, 34 draws and 31 defeats.
The most fruitful season was in 1991-92 when Maccabi amassed 24 points from seven wins, three draws and no defeats.
This season will be the first since the inception of the playoffs that Israel’s five biggest clubs — Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Beersheba — are all involved in the upper playoffs at the same time.
The current playoff format that was introduced in 2012-13, has always seen the club finishing in top spot at the end of the regular part of the season go on to win the title.
Maccabi’s biggest-ever win in the playoff phase was a 7-0 drubbing of Beitar in 2000-01 when Rodrigo Goldberg and Avi Nimni each scored two goals, and Dedi Ben Dayan, Baruch Dago and Guy Tzarfati struck the other three. With 31 goals to his credit, Eran Zahavi is Maccabi’s most prolific scorer in the playoff phase.
