Hapoel Tel Aviv
Also written as H. Tel Aviv.
The club
Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club were founded in 1923 out of the Hapoel workers' sports movement, and the club's left-wing supporter culture remains part of its identity. They are known as Hapoel, the Reds, or the Workers. They play in red and share the Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa, capacity 29,400, with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Because of the Gaza war, Israeli clubs are required by UEFA to play their home European matches at neutral venues; Hapoel are currently using the Diósgyőri Stadion in Miskolc, Hungary.
Recent seasons
Hapoel have spent the last few years outside the top flight as often as in it. They were relegated from the Israeli Premier League and won promotion back from Liga Leumit in 2024/25, beating Ramat Gan 1-0 on 28 April 2025 to go up after a single season.
The 2025/26 season back in the Premier League was strong and eventful. Hapoel finished fourth of fourteen behind Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv, with 18 wins, 8 draws and 10 defeats, 55 goals scored and 35 conceded. They also had two points deducted and were awarded a 3-0 technical defeat after crowd trouble in the Tel Aviv derby against Maccabi, a punishment confirmed on 3 November 2025. Fourth place took them into the Conference League, alongside Beitar Jerusalem, and ended an absence from European football stretching back to 2012/13, the last season in which the club entered a UEFA competition.
Honours and landmarks
Thirteen Israeli championships, the most recent in 2009/10. Sixteen State Cups, the most recent in 2011/12, when Hapoel won it for the third season in succession. One Toto Cup, in 2001/02, and five Israel Super Cups, the last in 1981. Internationally, Hapoel won the Asian Champion Club Tournament in 1967 and were runners-up in 1970, from the period when Israeli clubs competed in Asia.
The 1999/2000 and 2009/10 seasons both brought the double. The 2009/10 title was won on the last day against Beitar Jerusalem with Eran Zahavi scoring two minutes into injury time.
Notable scorelines
The result the club is best known for in Europe is the 1-0 win over AC Milan in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg, played at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia because UEFA would not sanction matches in Israel at the time; Hapoel then lost 2-0 at San Siro. No all-time record win or record defeat was confirmed from the sources read here.
European record
Hapoel's outstanding European season was 2001/02, when they reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals having knocked out Chelsea, Lokomotiv Moscow and Parma before losing to Milan. They reached the round of 32 in 2006/07 and 2009/10, and the group stage in 2007/08, 2011/12 and 2012/13. In 2009/10 they won their Europa League group before losing to Rubin Kazan.
In 2010/11 they reached the Champions League group stage for the first and so far only time, and did not advance. That was also the club's last sustained run in Europe before the thirteen-season gap that ended this summer.
The 2026/27 campaign has started well. Entering the Conference League at the second qualifying round, Hapoel beat Ludogorets Razgrad 2-0 in Miskolc on 23 July 2026, Omri Altman scoring on the stroke of half-time and Chico on 89 minutes, then drew 2-2 at the Huvepharma Arena in Razgrad on 30 July, Emmanuel Boateng scoring twice, to go through 4-2.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. Searches for comment from Elyaniv Barda or his players around the Katowice tie returned only previews and statistical material.
Right now (2026/27)
Elyaniv Barda, the former Israel international, is head coach. The club has been owned by the Mintzberg Group since 2023, after a period of financial crisis under previous owners.
Hapoel are in the Conference League third qualifying round against GKS Katowice and hold a two-goal lead. They won the first leg 2-0 on 6 August 2026 at the Diósgyőri Stadion in Miskolc in front of 3,006, Stav Turiel scoring on five minutes and Roei Alkukin on eighteen. The second leg is at the Arena Katowice on 12 August 2026, kicking off at 18.00, refereed by Alexandros Tsakalidis of Greece. It is the earliest of the third-round returns and will be settled on the day this dossier closes.
The winner of the tie plays Atalanta in the Conference League play-off round on 20 and 27 August 2026. Hapoel are unbeaten in the new season across their opening European matches. The Israeli Premier League has not yet begun.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapoel_Tel_Aviv_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Israeli_Premier_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(first_and_second_round_matches) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049159 https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049189 https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2048851 https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2048802
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.