In March 2014, one of the ugliest injuries known to Israeli football, the injury of Rafi Dahan from a wild slide by Ruben Raios, was etched in the head of every fan. In December 2019, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled in a precedent-setting decision that Maccabi Haifa, Raios and the insurance company must compensate Dahan with NIS 4.2 million. But that was not the last word: the sports channel learned that this morning (Monday) the issue reached the Supreme Court .
As first reported, Maccabi Haifa and Kesher Sport Ltd. filed an appeal through their representatives, attorneys Gil Atar and Shai Cohen, in which they claimed that the amount of compensation was detached from reality because Dahan was not a senior player, but at most a faculty player in one of the modest teams in the Premier League. Now, it became known that Dahan’s representative, Adv. Yossi Geyer, in cooperation with the National Insurance Institute, did not see justice in the district court’s decision and decided to demand a significant addition to the amount of compensation set at an additional NIS 1 million.
Dahan’s appeal dealt with the following issues: errors in the calculation of interest for past wage losses, his earnings until he reached the age of 35, the date on which it was determined that he could return to the labor market other than footballer and the effect of his disability on non-footballer earnings. The appeal alleges that the court erred in estimating that a year after the injury at the age of 26 his salary would have dropped by 15% each season and estimated that at the age of 30 he would have played in the lower leagues.
The appeal argued that these estimates have no basis and that the evidence shows that the salaries of successful players of Dahan’s type only increase even after the age of 30 and if there was still a game, his salary would increase continuously by ten percent every season until the age of 30. Dahan also claimed To play in the Premier League until the age of 35. The player was also based on the testimony of Kfir Edri, who believed that if he had played in Bnei Yehuda today – his salary would have been estimated at NIS 900,000 per season.
On the other hand, it was claimed in an appeal by Maccabi Haifa and Kesher Sports Ltd.: “Rafi Dahan was not a leading or senior player, but at most a faculty player in one of the modest teams in the Premier League. He was not called up to the national team, did not play in the European League or in one of the top teams in Israel, nor did he ever win a title, ashi or team. “The best-case scenario is that without the injury, Dahan would have continued to play for one of the smaller teams in the league for another two years and then find himself in one of the sub-league teams or even below that.”
This morning, the Supreme Court discussed the issue with a panel of three judges – Noam Solberg, Yosef Elron and Yael Wilner – when Sharfi Dahan chose not to appear at the hearing. The Supreme Court ruled that Maccabi Haifa and Kesher Sport Ltd. should take responsibility for the injury to Dahan and the main dispute is the amount of compensation. Although the panel of judges allowed the parties to take a proactive break to try and reach a compromise, the attempt failed and the hearing ended.
Meanwhile, the court has made it clear that it tends to leave the district court’s verdict on the line and the decision will be published in the coming hours. Dahan’s lawyer, Yossi Geyer, responded: “The hearing was predictable, our claims and theirs were predictable and the court’s response was predictable. We all estimate that the verdict will remain in place. Rafi was whole with what was decided.”
As you may recall, Dahan, who found himself at home for many days, filed a lawsuit against those involved for him: the Spanish midfielder, Maccabi Haifa and its insurance company. The defensive line was a warning against a dangerous precedent – a civil lawsuit as a result of a sports injury during a game.
The details of the compensation demanded by Dahan amounted to NIS 14 million, including the calculation of the wage loss from the moment of the injury (NIS 5 and a half million), the loss of earnings for the sophisticated future up to the age of 38 (NIS 3 and a half million), pension losses (NIS 1.5 million) and compensation for pain And suffering (half a million shekels). The National Insurance Institute added to the claim a claim for compensation in the amount of an additional NIS 7 million for past and future pensions.