In addition, the association is a voluntary sports association, which is responsible for the management of the sport of football in the State of Israel. The manner of operation, the goals and the powers of sports associations are anchored in their internal bylaws set by their founders, and not in the law. This is how the private essence of the sports associations is realized, which enables them to manage sports as they see fit professionally (Harel, The Sports Law, at p. 437).
Accordingly, Section 10 of the Sports Law subjects all those involved in a particular sport to the regulations enacted by the association that coordinates activity in that sport. Section 11 of the Law grants the internal judicial institutions of a sports association exclusive authority to hear matters related to the association's activities, when the decisions of the highest internal court in matters of discipline are final and cannot be appealed before a court (see Civil Appeal Authority 180/07 Katz v. Israel Basketball Association, [published in Nevo] at paragraph 13 of the judgment of Judge Y. Danziger (October 4, 2009)).
Ensuring the independence of sports associations is also seen as important in the international arena. As a sports association, the association has been a member of the international organization FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Associations) since its inception. In order to ensure that there is no governmental interference in the management of the sport of football, FIFA requires the various associations around the world to fully comply with the provisions of the organization's bylaws, in order to ensure minimal dependence on the country in which each association operates (Harel - Sports Law, at p. 437; Article 14 of the FIFA Regulations, June 2019 Edition. Available at: https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-statutes-5-august-2019-en.pdf?cloudid=ggyamhxxv8jrdfbekrrm).
- In addition to the aforementioned, the association is also characterized by various public aspects on the functional and institutional levels. In addition, the law imposes certain restrictions on its activity, including with regard to its financial conduct.
The clearest state feature in the context of the Association's institutional connection to the government is its representative activity on behalf of the State – managing the games of the Israeli national teams and determining the identity of the athletes who will represent the State of Israel in international competitions. Thus, for example, Section 1 of the Association's bylaws defines the "Israeli national team" as "a group of players chosen by the Israel Football Association to represent the State of Israel in a match and/or games against an opponent and/or opponents in any framework of any matches" (my emphasis, R.R.).