See also the position of Judge Zarnakin, in paragraph 26 of his judgment.
- Therefore, I did not find that a substantive or procedural right of Hapoel Be'er Sheva was violated due to the mistake of not convicting Bnei Sakhnin of the offense of refusing to play a game. The examination of the causal connection by the judges was done under the assumption that there was room to convict Bnei Sakhnin of the offense of refusing to hold a game, and based on an independent and reasoned examination - whether, under this assumption that Bnei Sakhnin was guilty of not holding the game, there is also a causal connection between the non-holding of the game and the riot of Hapoel Be'er Sheva fans.
As explained above, this question was also at the center of the discussion before the Association's judicial institutions.
Hence, the claim of an unfair proceeding is rejected.
- With regard to the imbalance between the teams' penalties, I am of the opinion that the argument is correct, and that it would have been appropriate to deduct one point from the balance sheet of Bnei Sakhnin, in light of its responsibility for the offense of refusing to play a game.
However, and this is the main point of this issue, the fact that Bnei Sakhnin "escaped" from a punishment that would have been due to a mistake, does not give Hapoel Be'er Sheva the right not to serve a punishment that was lawfully imposed on it.
The penalty of deduction of a point was lawfully imposed on Hapoel Be'er Sheva, when the latter was convicted of the offense of rioting fans in aggravated circumstances, and the mere fact that the other team was unlawfully acquitted, does not negate this punishment from Hapoel Be'er Sheva.
- I will note that even if I were of a different opinion on the issue of equality of punishment, it is clear that this is not a matter of lack of authority to determine the said punishment, nor is it an extreme unreasonableness, so that in any case there is no reason for the court to intervene in this determination.
Is the decision to set the result of the game at 0:0 without points extremely unreasonable?
- Hapoel Be'er Sheva also claims that the penalty in the form of a 0:0 result in a game without points is extremely unreasonable, for two reasons: first, creating a miscarriage of justice between it and Bnei Sakhnin, and second, the serious broad consequences of the decision.
I will discuss both arguments.
- In the framework of Hapoel Be'er Sheva's first claim, it claims that Bnei Sakhnin, whose fans participated in the riot, and whose players refused to go to the game, bears only a monetary fine, while Hapoel Be'er Sheva bears in addition to a monetary fine a potential loss of 3 points as well as a deduction of an additional point in practice.
This argument should be rejected.