With no bidders on the horizon for the debt-ridden Premier League soccer club Hapoel Tel Aviv, it appears that the veteran sports organization is closer than ever to dissolution. Hapoel Tel Aviv has an accumulated debt of 100 million shekels ($26 million). The team filed for a stay of legal proceedings in early December, a move that saw owner Amir Kabiri lose control of the club in favor of a court-appointed trustee, who was tasked with trying to reach a settlement with the club's creditors. Hapoel Tel Aviv trustee Shaul Kotler has submitted his report to the Tel Aviv District Court, and has asked Judge Eitan Orenstein to hold an urgent hearing next week with the aim of announcing the end of the stay of proceedings, informing the team's players that they are released from their contracts and can transfer to other teams, and appointing a team that will help the trustees wrap up matters such as the disposal of the soccer club's offices and equipment and resolve issues of debt collection and lawsuits. The request was submitted after it appeared that there was no buyer for the club and that most of its funds until the end of the season had been used, meaning the trustees had nothing with which to operate the team. "The great soccer team Hapoel Tel Aviv is about to fall apart and disappear. ... Don't let this drama turn into a tragedy," Kotler wrote in his report to the court. If the team is broken up, most of the players will be released and the team will drop 9 points. According to the regulations of the Israel Football Association, if Hapoel Tel Aviv does not find a buyer or if it reaches an arrangement with its creditors by the end of the 2017-2018 season, it will drop to the third-tier league. If Hapoel cannot run the team, regulations stipulate that it will be removed from the league for now and can start the next season from a lower league. The club could also can save itself if donors can raise NIS 7 million ($1.8 million), the sum the Kotler report says is needed to keep the team going until the end of the season, using a lineup of mostly young players, as most of the top players would be released. In this scenario, some of the club's employees would be put on half-time. Another option that would save the club would be for the court to allow it to operate in the red until a buyer is found. "Some of the interested parties made it clear to us that because of the short notice, they would not be able to submit offers by the deadline. Even if transferring players brings the club money, we're talking about uncertain funds," Kotler wrote. According to the report, 16 potential purchasers of the club have conducted due diligence, but no one put in a bid. "The most serious was [IT entrepreneur] Stav Shacham. The sides even discussed ways of solving the issue of him currently being the owner of the Hapoel Kfar Saba club," the trustees wrote. Inner Circle Sports, a sports investment company, also expressed interest in buying the club and signed a non-disclosure agreement, but the process has not progressed. A number of Israeli business figures also expressed initial interest in buying Hapoel Tel Aviv. One suggested raising NIS 25 million ($6.5 million) though season ticket sales, but trustees felt that the club's 11,000 season ticket holders would not pay that amount. Players' reactions to the imminent collapse of Hapoel Tel Aviv differed. One said, "There's nothing to say. It will be a disaster if Hapoel Tel Aviv becomes the 'late.'" Another said: "It ain't over 'til it's over."
