History
The club was established in 1934. In 1945 they reached the cup final, but lost 1-0 to Hapoel Tel Aviv in a final that was abandoned after 89 minutes due to a Petah Tikva player refusing to leave the field after being sent off for insulting the referee. That year's tournament, known as the "War Cup" and boycotted by Beitar-affiliated clubs, is not recognised by the Israel Football Association.
The club was included in the new Israeli League in 1949 and finished fourth in the first post-independence championship, with their 3-2 home defeat to Beitar Tel Aviv annulled.
In the 1954-55 season the club won their first championship, but missed out on doing the double when they lost the cup final 3-1 to Maccabi Tel Aviv. They finished second for the next three seasons, winning the cup for the first time in 1957 (beating Maccabi Jaffa 2-1), before winning the title again in 1958-59. They retained the title in 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63, setting a record for the number of consecutive championships (the next best is three, achieved by Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa). In both 1959 and 1960 the club also reached the cup final, but lost on both occasions, 4-3 to Maccabi Tel Aviv and 2-1 to Hapoel Tel Aviv respectively.
Hapoel finished second in 1964-65 and 1966-68 and reached the cup final again in 1968, but lost 1-0 to Bnei Yehuda. In the 1974 final they lost 1-0 to Hapoel Haifa after extra time.
At the end of the 1975-76 season the club were relegated for the first time in their history, and dropped into Liga Artzit. They returned to the top flight in 1978, but were relegated again at the end of the 1981-82 season, in which they finished bottom of the table with only three wins from 30 matches. The club returned to Liga Leumit in 1984. In 1986 they won the Toto Cup for the first time.
Despite a two point deduction for breaking budget rules, Hapoel finished second in 1988-89 and qualified for the Intertoto Cup. They also finished as runners-up in 1989-90 and 1990-91, winning the Toto Cup in both seasons. In the latter they also reached the State Cup final, but lost 3-1 to Maccabi Haifa. The following year the club also reached the final, this time winning, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 3-1 after extra time, qualifying for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
In their first season in Europe, Hapoel beat Strømsgodset 4-0 on aggregate in the first qualifying round, before losing on away goals to Feyenoord. Domestically, Hapoel struggled during the 1992-93 season, finishing second from bottom, only avoiding relegation after beating Maccabi Jaffa in a play-off.
In 1996-97 Hapoel finished second, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. After beating Flora Tallinn and Vejle in the qualifying rounds they were knocked out by Rapid Vienna. In 2005 they won the Toto Cup for a record fourth time (the record has since been equalled by Maccabi Haifa).
In 2006-07 the club finished bottom of the Israeli Premier League (which had replaced Liga Leumit as the top division), and were relegated. However, they made an immediate return to the top division after finishing as runners-up in the second tier, also winning the Liga Leumit Toto Cup.
Read more about this topic: Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C.
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