Supporters and Politics
The team is the standard-bearer of the Israeli left. It was the last club to cut formal links with politics, in this case the trade union movement and Labour party. At home matches the fans, known as ultras hapoel, unroll banners emblazoned with the face of Che Guevara, and banners with the political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!". The club has relationships with FC St. Pauli, Omonia Nicosia and Standard Liège.
According to a survey conducted in 2010, Hapoel Tel Aviv is the most hated club in Israel, with approximately about 22.3% of Israeli football fans chose Hapoel to be their most hated football club. A Haaretz poll published on June 2011 identified Hapoel Tel Aviv as the second most popular football team among Israeli Arabs, behind Maccabi Haifa.
Another survey had been conducted in March 2012 by Yedioth showed that Hapoel is the fourth most popular team among Israeli football fans (19%). Same survey revealed that 32% of Tel Aviv residents support the team.
Read more about this topic: Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C.
Famous quotes containing the words supporters and/or politics:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)