Maor Rahmani 27/01/2021 16:50
Hapoel Tel Aviv players (Oren Ben Hakon)
The fateful oral hearing regarding Hapoel Tel Aviv’s unified appeal regarding Harel Holdings’ claims before the liquidation period within the CAS – the Arbitration Court in Sports – ended, when Adv. Yossi Geyer represented the Reds before the judges of the court sitting in Lausanne, Switzerland. At a hearing adjourned after six and a half hours, it will be resumed in writing and is expected to end within a month. The decision regarding the appeal will be made in at least two months’ time.
The hearing began at 10:30 a.m. and included investigations by experts from both sides. On the other hand, Professor Assaf Hamdani, director of the Issachar Center and Batya Fischer for Corporate Governance and Capital Market Regulation at the Faculty of Law of Tel Aviv University, and on the other hand, FIFA Dr. Omri Kimhi, an expert in insolvency law.
After the correspondence and lawsuits discussed in the last four years, to which Hapoel responded time and time again through the same legal line and then preferred to appeal them all together, it was in fact a “legal hearing and not one that dealt with facts already known,” Hapoel Tel Aviv said after the hearing. It was watched from a distance by the Khodorov compound.
“FIFA is fighting this case with full force, in order to understand Israeli law in matters of liquidation, it has many complex legal questions and issues and they want to understand everything in grammar to make the right decision,” the club added. They take it seriously, and we are optimistic that we have no cause for concern, but it is also not clear at all what is going to happen. “
“There was an intense and tiring hearing,” the attorney concluded Yossi Geyer In conversation with ONE. “During the hearing, experts from both sides were questioned about the meaning of the dissolution in Israeli law and after six and a half hours of hearing, FIFA decided to arrest him at that stage and asked to continue in writing. I guess the next step will be over in a month. It was difficult to get an impression of what was going to happen regarding the appeal, the hearing took place in a good spirit, but as a matter of fact, the faces of the arbitrators remained sealed, so it is difficult to assess. We are optimistic. ”
As will be recalled, the appeal against the debts of “Harel Holdings” abroad (for all the cases combined, a potential sum of about NIS 12 million) took place after the Reds have repeatedly claimed in the last four years that the debts do not belong to them, but to the previous management group in the Khodorov complex , Before the liquidation – they also claimed that the payment of debts by the club is considered a “creditors preference” under Israeli law and illegal for them, and this is an issue that has come up several times in the court regarding different countries whose laws are contrary to those of UEFA and FIFA, so it is considered For the most complicated and complex.
What’s more, in addition to all that, the club, as FIFA sees it, remains “Hapoel Tel Aviv”, without any change in the signs. They will try to keep the creditors and the money they allegedly deserve, and in any case a court decision will be made in a few months.
Only last summer, the Football Association demanded not to transfer the club’s budget control without guarantees on at least half of the above debts, but finally relented and allowed the Reds to open the season after explaining their legal line and their intention, however, to appeal once more if necessary. Thus the final decision, even if it will be a severe and severe penalty for the club, will not be made during the current season.
This, when it comes to huge financial damage to Hapoel, if and when it is determined that the club will have to pay the money, when additional financial fines are at stake, a ban on signings in the transfer windows, relegation and more. However, at Wolfson, as has been the custom in recent years, they are confident in their claims and in the representation of Advocate Geir, and try to maintain optimism that the cloud will soon stop hovering over the compound.
