Hapoel Jerusalem F.C.

Hapoel Jerusalem Club was established in 1926 and played in the inaugural season of the EIFA league, playing the league's first match against local rivals Maccabi Hasmonean Jerusalem.^[1][2] The club played in the league for its first three seasons, however, the club was restricted to playing mainly in the Jerusalem area due to travelling difficulties. The club participated occasionally in the Palestine Cup, reaching the cup final in 1943, losing to a team from the Royal Artillery 1–7.^[3]

After the establishment of Israel, the club registered to play in the makeshift second-tier league, Liga Meuhedet, in the Jerusalem-Central division, which the club won. The club continued to play in the second division (Liga Bet until 1956 and Liga Alef afterwards), until it was promoted to the top division at the end of the 1956–57 season, after finishing second in promotion play-offs. Following the promotion, the club stayed in the top division for 21 seasons, achieving its best position, 3rd, in 1972–73. In 1971–72 the club reached the State Cup final, losing to Hapoel Tel Aviv 0–1. A season later, the club reached the cup final again, this time winning the cup.^[4]

The club was relegated to the second division in 1979, but bounced back the following season. The club continued to yo-yo between the two top divisions in the following seasons, playing his last season at the top division in 1999–2000. In 1998, the club reached its fourth cup final, but lost to Maccabi Haifa in extra time.

In the early 1990s, the club was transferred to businessmen Yossi Sassi and Victor Yona. The two ran the team together until falling out, leading to a long business and legal dispute^[5] which lasted until 2009, when Yona left the club.^[6] During the dispute, a group of supporters, tired of the feuding between the two businessmen, decided to establish a group, first in an attempt to purchase control of the club, and then in a bid to establish a fan-owned club, Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem. The fan-based club was established in 2009 (after a short period of existence as a merged club with Hapoel Mevaseret Zion) and progressed to the Liga Leumit in 2013–14, where the two clubs met for the first time.

The club played in the third tier Liga Aleph after being relegated from the second tier Liga Leumit in the 2016–17. On 26 August 2019 the Israeli Football Federation refused to list the club for 2019–20 season due to financial problems.

On 9 August 2020, the club has been officially recreated, as Hapoel Katamon renamed to Hapoel Jerusalem.

On 30 April 2021, Hapoel Jerusalem won against Sektzia Nes Ziona, thereby securing promotion to the top flight, after an absence of 21 years from the top flight.

Since the establishment of Israel, the club played in three stadiums, YMCA stadium, in which the club played between 1949 and 1955, when the club moved to its own Katamon Stadium, in the neighborhood of Katamon. Katamon Stadium was razed in 1982, with the intention to build a bigger modern stadium in its place, and in the meantime the club returned to play in YMCA stadium. The new stadium in Katamon was never built, and instead Teddy Stadium was built in the Malha neighborhood, to which the club moved in 1992.^{[citation needed]}

During the early years, support of the club came mostly from the labour organizations in Israel. City rivals Beitar were identified with the right-wing nationalist organizations. All this played out to create the Jerusalem derby. To this day the rivalry exists, though it is not nearly as heated as when both clubs played in the top division of Israeli football. In 2007 a large majority of fans, unhappy with the management of the club, defected and founded Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem F.C., the first fully fan-owned club in the country.^{[citation needed]}

As of 25 August 2026

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ISR Ben Gordin (on loan from Hapoel Be'er Sheva) 3 DF  ISR Noam Malmoud 4 DF  ISR Yonathan Laish 8 MF  ISR Ilay Madmon 10 FW  MDA Vitalie Damascan 11 MF  ISR Yanai Distelfeld 13 GK  USA Guy Bar 14 MF  ISR Omer Abuhav 16 DF  ISR Omer Agvadish 17 FW  NGA Sani Abdulsalam 18 DF  ISR Li On Mizrahi 20 DF  ISR Ofek Nadir 21 MF  ISR Ayano Preda

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 DF  ISR Tamir Haimovich 23 MF  ISR Netanel Shiferaw 25 FW  NGA Andrew Idoko 26 DF  ISR Idan Cohen 27 FW  ISR Mohamed Diab 33 FW  ISR Israel Dappa 55 GK  ISR Nadav Zamir 70 DF  TOG Zuberu Sharani 77 FW  ISR Ohad Almagor 91 MF  CIV Christ Tiéhi 95 GK  ISR Ilay Tovim — MF  ZAM Edward Chilufya (on loan from Midtjylland)

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Other players under contract

More information No., Pos. ...

No. Pos. Nation Player 40 MF  CIV Daniel Koudougou

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As of May 24, 2019

More information Position, Staff ...

Position	Staff
Manager	Ziv Arie
Assistant manager	Lior Zada Yitzhak Sherman
First-team coach	Yitzhak Sherman
Goalkeeper coach	Guy Hakmon
Fitness coach	Lidor Ganon
Sportstherapist	Shlomi Zimmermann
Physiotherapist	Itay Azulay
Director of the youth department	Yehuda Herzog
Logistics Manager	Moshe Zakaria
Professional Manager	Shay Aharon

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• Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem

• Official website (in English)