Raz Amir 02/04/2024 16:45
Joris Van Overeem (Radad Jabara)
The quarter-final games of the State Cup will start today (Tuesday) when the factory’s semi-final draw will already take place on Thursday. ONE has learned that this season it was decided that the semi-finals will be played not one day apart, but six days apart, with the first semi-final being played on April 24 and the second semi-final on April 30.
There were two free dates in the game schedule in terms of availability and it was decided to use both and split the “cup celebration” into a significant and somewhat puzzling day difference, but the explanation according to officials in the football association is that there was no other choice and these are some of the lessons learned regarding the problems that emerged in the decisive games of the state cup last year related in policing and security.
The argument is that in order to create a complete and as good security system as possible, a gap of days must be created between the games and following they thought it was wrong to hold the two games on the same day, it was decided to separate the games by six days. It should be noted that the 24.4 is actually the beginning of the Pesach holiday, when many children are on vacation and it is a bit disappointing that the games celebration might not be held that day.
As far as the stadiums themselves are concerned, Teddy is under renovation and he will be able to host one of the games, but there will be associated difficulties as a result of the renovation the place is undergoing. Bloomfield and Sami Ofer will be the obvious options for the teams with the biggest crowds. However, what will happen if Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa qualify for the semi-finals and are drawn once morest each other? In such a situation, it seems that there will be no escape from using Teddy for the same game and we will have to prepare accordingly.
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