Opening Stimulus (Tel Aviv) 21816-11-19 Ironi Modiin – The Modiin Municipal Sports Association Maccabim Reut vs. The Israel Football Association

1. I have before me an application for temporary relief (hereinafter: the "Application"), which was filed by Ironi Modiin, the Municipal Association for Sports Modiin, Maccabim Reut (hereinafter: the "Applicant").
2. The Applicant is a women's team, which has been playing soccer for about four years in the framework of the National League, is professionally managed and organized and is supported by the Municipal Sports Association.
3. The application was filed against the Israel Football Association (hereinafter: the "Association"), and concerns the issuance of an injunction prohibiting the activity of the National League until the action is decided. Alternatively, a temporary injunction was requested that would preserve the Applicant's right to join the National League until the action is decided, and/or any other remedy at the discretion of the court.
4. Simultaneously with the filing of the application, the main action was filed, in which the court was asked to grant declaratory relief according to which the applicant was entitled to participate in the respondent's national league.
5. It should be noted that the National League opens today and the Applicant is even scheduled to play in it today, while the National League is scheduled to open on November 19, 2019, that is, in two days, hence the urgency of holding the hearing of the application today.
6. In these circumstances, and after I held a hearing in the presence of the parties this morning and due to the short timetable, the main points will be summarized below, according to the order of events of which there is great importance, as will be detailed below:
7. The Applicant finished the 2018-2019 season in the National League, in third place, and in mid-July 2019 she applied to the Association to register in the National League, after making all the necessary adjustments for the team's expected promotion to the National League, including receiving an extensive financial investment, increasing the coaching staff, hiring a physiotherapist, recruiting professional players, and more.
8. In accordance with the provisions of the regulations regarding the Women's League (hereinafter: the "Women's League Regulations"), the National League is the second most important league after the Premier League, and it constitutes a closed league, meaning that it cannot be promoted to another league (such as the National League) and cannot be relegated from it.

In contrast, the National League is not considered a professional or competitive league, but only an amateur and sports league.  Since the establishment of the National League, a team that met the conditions required by the regulations and was interested in playing in the National League was entitled to submit a registration application and register for the National League.  In this way, since the team joined the National League, its status was maintained even if it finished in last place every year.

9. The Applicant's application for registration was based on Clause 4.2 of the Women's League Regulations, which states: "The National League shall consist of up to 12 teams, except as specified in Clause 4.3", as well as on Clause 4.3 of the Regulations, which states: "If more than 12 teams are registered for the National League, the league will be divided into two districts (North and South), and the teams will be placed in accordance with the decision of the League and Cup Committee" (emphasis added).

From this the Applicant learned that the only condition for admission to the National League is to fulfill the registration process.  In a parenthetical article, it should be noted that the association does not dispute this, as will be detailed below.

10. This request of the Applicant was answered only on October 10, 2019, three months after the date of submission of the registration application, by means of a short email from the Director of Women's Leagues of the Association, who rejected the application in the following laconic version:

Further to your request for placement in the National League, I hereby inform you that after receiving the opinion of the Legal Advisor, your request has been rejected.  The team that will be promoted to the National League is the team that finished the 2018-19 season in first place only.

11. The Applicant did not accept this response and filed an appeal on her behalf on October 13, 2019 (hereinafter: "the Applicant's appeal against the Association's decision") and the appeal was set for a hearing before the Association's Tribunal (hereinafter: the "Association's Tribunal") on October 30, 2019.
12. The Applicant's main argument in the appeal is based on the fact that Section 4 of the Women's League Regulations allows up to 12 teams to be registered in the National League, and that the Association limits the National League to ten teams for the upcoming 2019-2020 season, without any basis in the Regulations and without authority. According to the Applicant, her admission to the National League is consistent with the number of teams specified in the bylaws, and there is no substantive reason not to allow her to be accepted.
13. It was further argued that during all the years it was possible for any team that was interested in registering in the National League, so that a clear practice in this matter took root, as a matter of policy of the Association, and that the Association did not dispute that in the past five years it had agreed to register in the National League any team that requested it subject to compliance with the conditions.
14. According to the Applicant, despite meeting the conditions, the Association suddenly decided to change the policy without justification, due to a petition submitted to the High Court of Justice regarding the support and budgeting of the women's leagues (High Court of Justice 2640/19 Shimon Maimon et al.   Council for the Regulation of Gambling in Sports et al.) (hereinafter: "the High Court of Women's Football Allotments" or "the High Court of Justice").
15. On November 3, 2019, the Association's court delivered its decision in the appeal, rejecting the Applicant's arguments on the following main grounds:

First, Section 4.2 of the Women's League Regulations, which states that: "The National League shall have up to 12 teams", allows only ten teams to be admitted to the National League, and this is an implementation of the provisions of the bylaws and not a change thereof, since this is a matter of registration of "upto" 12 teams.  It was also determined that it is not possible to learn from clause 4.3 of the rules of the Women's League that the association must register any team that wishes to register in the national league.