Israel - List of Champions


Football probably was introduced in Palestine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by missionary schools. In 1908 two football teams were formed, one by the school of Rawat al Ma'aref, the other by St George's School in Jerusalem. In 1920 the British established the Jerusalem Sports Club, where football, tennis and cricket were played. Additionally, British service teams such as Police, Air Force, Army and others played football.

In the 1920s several Arab clubs (Dajani Sports Club of Jerusalem, several Orthodox clubs) were established; by the start of the 1930s, there were about 20.

In 1921 a first league was formed, the Government Department League, which only operated in Jerusalem; it only lasted until 1925 due to reduction of the British personnel in the various departments. The Al-Zahra league, also restricted to Jerusalem, which initially included a few Jewish clubs became the first (and only) "integrated" league in the country when it was joined by Rawdat al Ma'aref and Arab Sports Club in 1923. A number of cup competitions were also played; in Jerusalem these included one operated by The Sports Club between 1924 and 1927 (when Royal Air Force won the trophy outright), the Jerusalem Flower Cup (first held in 1923 with as participants Rawdat al Ma'arif, YMCA, Arab SC, Shell, Ofir and Hanoar Haoved) and the Municipal Cup competition.

Note that the Palestine FA was formed in 1928; in the same year, it submitted a report submitted to FIFA (in order to apply for membership of the worldwide organisation) describing 3 soccer divisions in Palestine, with 10 teams in the first, 20 in the second (5 of them Arab), and 39 in the third (6 of them Arab); however, this was deliberate misinformation (not to say a pack of lies) by PFA founder Yosef Yekutieli ( Zusmanovitz), as was the claim in the report that the PFA had been formed in 1927 (apparently in order to take credit for organising the cup tournament that year, cf. [Bli 19], pp. 97 ff.): there was no league competition at the time, and nowhere near 50 Jewish football clubs as implied by the report.
No official league championship was played until the 1932 edition; there only were cup competitions 1928-1930 and sources (such as [FIF 31]) crediting Maccabi Hashmonai Jerusalem with a 1928 championship title just upgraded their win in the controversial cup competition of that year. The same applied for the supposed championships of Maccabi Tel-Aviv in 1929 and 1930; the latter was actually won by their reserve side.

See also the list of final tables and Palestine - List of Champions and Cup Winners.

Champions marked with D won the double.


Palestine 1932-1947

1931/32 D British Police      
1932/33     no championship
1933/34 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv
1934/35     abandoned         
1935/36   Maccabi Tel-Aviv    
1936/37   Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1937/38     abandoned         [1]
1938/39     no championship   [2]
1939/40   Hapoel Tel-Aviv
1940/41     no championship   [3]  
1941/42   Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1942/43     not finished      [4]
1943/44   Hapoel Tel-Aviv     [5]
1944/45     no championship   [6]
1945/46     no championship
1946/47 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv
1947/48     not finished

[1] the league was abandoned long before the end of the season; some
    sources credit Hapoel Tel-Aviv with the title but this is incorrect
    as several other clubs could still overtake them in the table and
    the PFA did not declare them champions.
[2] no national championship was held; the Tel-Aviv district league was
    won by Maccabi Tel-Aviv, that of Jerusalem by Police Depot; the
    champions of Haifa are not known.
[3] no national championship was held; there were separate competitions
    for Hapoel clubs (won by Hapoel Tel-Aviv) and for Maccabi and Beitar
    clubs (won by Maccabi Avshalom Petah-Tikva); in addition there were
    regional leagues in Jerusalem and in the northern region.
[4] in 1942/43, three regional leagues were played, in Haifa, Jerusalem 
    and Tel-Aviv; the Haifa league was abandoned while the champions of
    Jerusalem (Homenetmen) and Tel-Aviv (Maccabi Tel-Aviv) were to play
    off for the championship; Homenetmen refused to enter and Maccabi
    were declared champions; however, this championship is not considered
    official by the IFA.
[5] the 1943/44 championship was abandoned with about two dozen matches
    left to play; leaders Hapoel Tel-Aviv were declared champions. 
[6] there were two regional "test" leagues: the southern division was
    won by Beitar Tel-Aviv, the northern division by Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

Israel (since 1948)

1948/49     no championship
1949/50   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          24 21  1  2 103-18  43  
1950/51     no championship
1951/52   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          22 18  2  2  89-18  38 
1952/53     no championship
1953/54 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          22 16  6  0  59-11  38
1954/55   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        26 18  4  4  68-23  40
1955/56   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          22 13  6  3  47-16  32
1956/57   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           18 13  2  3  41-19  28
1957/58 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          22 13  9  0  50-12  35
1958/59   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        22 15  3  4  49-18  33
1959/60   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        22 14  3  5  65-29  31
1960/61   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        22 16  4  2  48-15  36
1961/62   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        22 12  4  6  35-19  28
1962/63   Hapoel Petah-Tikva        22 13  6  3  38-17  32
1963/64   Hapoel Ramat-Gan          28 17  6  5  52-33  40
1964/65   Hakoah Maccabi Ramat-Gan  30 13 11  6  42-24  37
1965/66   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           30 12 14  4  36-23  38
1966-68   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          60 30 18 12  88-50  78
1968/69   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           30 19  6  5  55-21  44
1969/70 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 15  9  6  51-21  39
1970/71   Maccabi Netanya           30 20  7  3  44-18  47
1971/72   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 18  9  3  45-20  45
1972/73   Hakoah Maccabi Ramat-Gan  30 16 10  4  41-20  42
1973/74   Maccabi Netanya           30 13 11  6  32-19  37
1974/75   Hapoel Beer-Sheva         30 15 10  5  34-19  40
1975/76   Hapoel Beer-Sheva         34 14 14  6  40-29  42
1976/77 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 16 10  4  47-26  42
1977/78 D Maccabi Netanya           26 15  8  3  50-21  38
1978/79   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 18  8  4  47-16  33   
1979/80   Maccabi Netanya           30 19  8  3  53-23  46
1980/81   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           30 13 12  5  50-30  38
1981/82   Hapoel Kfar-Saba          30 17  8  5  45-28  42
1982/83   Maccabi Netanya           30 18  7  5  54-31  61
1983/84   Maccabi Haifa             30 16  9  5  48-28  57
1984/85   Maccabi Haifa             30 20  5  5  57-20  65
1985/86   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           30 17  8  5  52-26  59
1986/87   Beitar Jerusalem          30 19  9  2  59-27  66
1987/88   Hapoel Tel-Aviv           33 19  9  5  43-23  66
1988/89   Maccabi Haifa             31 15 14  2  49-19  57
1989/90   Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv      32 17 11  4  48-24  62
1990/91 D Maccabi Haifa             32 22  5  5  56-28  71
1991/92   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          32 23  6  3  82-29  75
1992/93   Beitar Jerusalem          33 22  5  6  64-38  71
1993/94   Maccabi Haifa             39 28 11  0  97-27  95
1994/95   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 19  6  5  59-27  63
1995/96 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          30 23  5  2  59-16  74
1996/97   Beitar Jerusalem          30 21  6  3  62-20  69
1997/98   Beitar Jerusalem          30 20  9  1  71-33  69
1998/99   Hapoel Haifa              30 22  5  3  66-23  71  
1999/00 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv           39 26  7  6  76-28  85
2000/01   Maccabi Haifa             38 24 10  4  68-28  82
2001/02   Maccabi Haifa             33 22  9  2  72-32  75
2002/03   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          33 22  3  8  66-31  69
2003/04   Maccabi Haifa             33 19  6  8  54-25  63   
2004/05   Maccabi Haifa             33 21  8  4  66-27  71
2005/06   Maccabi Haifa             33 23  6  4  65-25  75
2006/07   Beitar Jerusalem          33 19 10  4  52-24  67
2007/08 D Beitar Jerusalem          33 20  7  6  61-23  67     
2008/09   Maccabi Haifa             33 19 10  4  49-24  67    
2009/10 D Hapoel Tel-Aviv           35 25  9  1  87-26  49 
2010/11   Maccabi Haifa             35 24  8  3  63-28  45  
2011/12   Hap. Ironi Kiriat Shmona  37 21 10  6  48-26  73
2012/13   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          36 25  5  6  78-30  80
2013/14   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          36 26  6  4  76-30  84
2014/15 D Maccabi Tel-Aviv          36 21  9  6  67-32  70  [-2]
2015/16   Hapoel Beer-Sheva         36 25  8  3  66-24  83
2016/17   Hapoel Beer-Sheva         36 26  7  3  73-18  85
2017/18   Hapoel Beer-Sheva         36 24  8  4  70-27  80 
2018/19   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          36 27  8  1  77-17  92  
2019/20   Maccabi Tel-Aviv          36 26  9  1  63-10  87  
2020/21   Maccabi Haifa             36 24  7  5  72-29  79
2021/22   Maccabi Haifa             36 24  6  6  79-27  78 
2022/23   Maccabi Haifa             36 27  3  6  76-34  84
2023/24   

Number of Titles (79)

 23 Maccabi Tel-Aviv [includes 4 before 1948]
  
 15 Maccabi Haifa 

 11 Hapoel Tel-Aviv [includes 3 before 1948]

  6 Beitar Jerusalem
    Hapoel Petah-Tikva 
    
  5 Hapoel Beer-Sheva
    Maccabi Netanya  

  2 Hakoah Ramat-Gan 

  1 Bnei-Yehuda Tel Aviv 
    British Police [before 1948]
    Hapoel Haifa
    Hapoel Kfar-Sava 
    Hapoel Ironi Kiriat Shmona
    Hapoel Ramat-Gan


About this document

Sources included: [Sho 06], [Bli 19], [FIF 31]

Prepared and maintained by Yaniv Bleicher and Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Authors: Yaniv Bleicher and Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 20 Nov 2023

(C) Copyright Yaniv Bleicher, Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 1995/2023
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All rights reserved.