Police cancel Tel Aviv soccer derby after fans riot; 13 arrested, 3 cops injured

Police on Sunday canceled a much-anticipated derby match between Tel Aviv’s rival soccer teams — Hapoel and Maccabi — after riots broke out in and around the stadium, wounding at least four people.

Three police officers and a boy, 13, were lightly wounded, as rioters threw objects and hurled flares and smoke bombs onto the field. Some 30,000 spectators had to evacuate the stadium, Channel 12 reported.

The violence came just days after officials said that Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans would not be allowed to attend a Europa League game at Aston Villa in England next month because of security concerns, drawing condemnation from Israel as well as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

While those concerns were largely based around threats of anti-Israel protests, the fan violence was unlikely to help the cause.

Tel Aviv police on Sunday arrested five people, on suspicion of disturbing public order, and detained 13 masked fans after they allegedly lit flares and threw them onto the soccer field. A total of 51 flares and smoke bombs were thrown onto the turf, the Ynet news site reported.

Describing the events, a police spokesman said what happened was “not a soccer game,” but “a disturbance of public order and serious violence.”

עונה שעברה איש טיפש ירה חזיז שפגע לילד בחזה במהלך משחק כדורגל. עכשיו הטירוף הזה. עד שלא תהיה ענישה אמיתית כנגד אנשים מסכני חיים הטרלול הזה יימשך. אפשר לומר מדינת משטרה כמה שרוצים, אבל ירי זיקוק בכינון ישיר לעבר אדם, גם אם הוא לובש מדים, זה קו אדום שאין סיבה להתקרב אליו אפילו. pic.twitter.com/5SoXDmbwV9

— ???????????????????? ???????? Akiva Lamm ???????? (@AkivaLamm) October 19, 2025

“In light of the disruptions of order and the danger to people’s lives, in advance of the start of the soccer game in Bloomfield Stadium, the Israel Police informed the teams and the managers and referees of the teams, that it decided not to allow the game to take place,” the spokesman said.

Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof said in a video statement: “Since this afternoon, we’ve experienced serious violence — clashes that were planned ahead of time.”

He added, “We have 13-year-old kids who’ve been injured. We have three police officers who were injured. One of them was sent to the hospital. There’s a point at which sports must stop; safety comes first. None of you would be willing to see your child injured.”

“I ask fans to disperse without violence. We will operate with zero tolerance,” he added.

Outside the stadium, however, Hapoel Tel Aviv fans refused to disperse and cursed at police officers, Ynet reported. More officers arrived, some of them on horseback, and dispersed the crowd by force.

ביטלו משחק למען שמירה על חיי אדם
20 דקות לאחר מכן: דורכים עם פרשים לילדים על הראש pic.twitter.com/GItuTthwPZ

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— דניאל לוי | Daniel Levy (@danielevi244) October 19, 2025

Hapoel Tel Aviv CEO Guy Primor took issue with the decision, telling media, “There have been games where much worse things happened, and they played. No one is explaining why the game was canceled. What, any game where there are flares is going to be canceled? What have we come to?”

Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO Ben Mansford said: “If the police decided to cancel the game because they couldn’t ensure the security of the players — the decision was justified. There should be a technical victory for Maccabi Tel Aviv.”

In light of the incident, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote on X: “To the unending list of failures by failed [National Security] Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, we can add tonight the inability to enable a soccer game in the State of Israel.”

MK Vladimir Beliak, of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, posted that “after Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, and his absurd appointments, there is no police left that’s capable of its work, of securing something basic — a soccer game.”

“Apparently it’s easier to go after citizens reading the names of the hostages,” he added, referring to police actions against protesters. “Wishing a speedy recovery to everyone injured in the incident.”