A new report reveals a disturbing picture of what is happening in Israeli football stadiums during the 2024/25 season. The “Kick It Out” report reveals a new and disturbing record in racist chants, continued incidents of violence, and failures in enforcement:
367 racist chants were recorded during the current season – a sharp increase of 64% compared to 224 chants recorded during the previous season. This is the third consecutive year in which this negative record has been broken on Israeli soccer fields. The most common racist chant – “Let the IDF win, f**k the Arabs” – was recorded no less than 73 times in various fields across the country. racist chants at least once during the season were heard in all Premier League teams, except for Ashdod.
At the same time, 165 violent incidents were recorded during the season – a 21% decrease compared to 209 incidents in the previous season, but still a disturbing number of cases of violence, pitch invasions, and throwing objects. Two games were halted during the season: the game between Hapoel Be’er Sheva and Bnei Sakhnin following a show of disrespect for the national anthem and a violent incident on the pitch, and the game between Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv after repeated throwing of flares throughout the first half.
