Israeli football clubs in international competitions

Israeli football clubs have competed in international football tournaments since 1967, when Hapoel Tel Aviv played in the inaugural Asian Champion Club Tournament. Two Israeli clubs, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv, competed in all four editions of the Asian Champion Club Tournament before it was discontinued after the 1972 edition was cancelled. The Israel Football Association was expelled from the AFC in 1974, with Israeli clubs not being invited to take part in the competition when it was revived as the Asian Club Championship (now the AFC Champions League) in 1985.

Between 1976 and 1994, Israeli clubs took part in the Intertoto Cup, which was the only international club competition available until 1990 due to the Israeli FA not being affiliated to any confederation.

Israel was admitted to UEFA in 1991 and Israeli clubs participated European football tournaments since 1992, when Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Petah Tikva played in the Champions League and the Cup Winners' Cup (respectively). Since 1992, Israeli clubs have taken part in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Full Asian record

Season	Club	Round	Date	Opponent	Score	Venue
1967	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Final	19 December 1967	Selangor FA	2–1	Bangkok, Thailand
1969	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Group Stage	15 January 1969	Toyo Kogyo	3–2	Bangkok, Thailand
			19 January 1969	Kowloon Motor Bus	5–0
			22 January 1969	Perak FA	1–1
			26 January 1969	Persepolis	0–0
		Semi-final	28 January 1969	Mysore State	6–1
		Final	30 January 1969	Yangzee FC	1–0
1970	Hapoel Tel Aviv	Group Stage	2 April 1970	Royal Thai Police FC	5–0	Amjadieh Stadium, Tehran, Iran
			4 April 1970	West Bengal	3–1
			6 April 1970	PSMS Medan	3–1
		Semi-final	8 April 1970	Homenetmen	w/o
		Final	10 April 1970	Taj Tehran	1–2 ( a.e.t. )
1971	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Preliminary Round	22 March 1971	Perak FA	1–0	National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
		Group Stage	25 March 1971	Aliyat Al-Shorta	w/o
			27 March 1971	FC Punjab Police	4–1
			29 March 1971	Bangkok Bank FC	4–1
		Semi-final	31 March 1971	ROK Army	2–0
		Final	2 April 1971	Aliyat Al-Shorta	w/o

Performance table

Club	APP.	P	W	D	L	GF	GA
Hapoel Tel Aviv	2	5	4	0	1	14	5
Maccabi Tel Aviv	2	10	8	2	0	27	6
Total	4	15	12	2	1	41	11

Intertoto Cup (1976–1994)

Main article: Intertoto Cup

Israeli teams first appeared in the Intertoto Cup in 1976, with Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Beitar Jerusalem, champions and runners-up in the previous season, debuting. In 1979, due to the cost of travelling to Europe, only one team, Maccabi Netanya was entered into the competition, ^{[1] [2] [3]} and between 1980 and 1992 the two Israeli entrants played in one group to reduce travelling expenses. ^[4] In 1993 and 1994, as the format of the competition was changed to allow participating teams to play only two away matches, Israeli teams were allocated to two different groups.

Season	Club	Group	Rank	Opponents	W	D	L	GF	GA
1976	Beitar Jerusalem	1	3rd	Young Boys, Malmö FF, Admira Vienna	2	2	2	12	13
	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	2	3rd	Hertha Berlin, Standard Liège, Køge	1	3	2	8	13
1977	Maccabi Jaffa	1	4th	Halmstad, Vojvodina, Amsterdam	2	1	3	9	15
	Maccabi Tel Aviv	2	4th	Duisburg, Standard Liège, Twente	1	1	4	10	15
1978	Maccabi Tel Aviv	5	3rd	Malmö FF, FC Zürich, Admira Vienna	2	0	4	10	10
	Maccabi Netanya	8	1st	Sloboda Tuzla, Elfsborg, Lillestrøm	3	3	0	16	8
1979	Maccabi Netanya	1	3rd	Werder Bremen, Standard Liège, Rapid Vienna	1	2	3	8	10
1980	Maccabi Netanya	3	1st	KB, Royal Antwerp	3	2	1	11	6
	Maccabi Tel Aviv		4th		1	1	4	8	14
1981	Maccabi Netanya	1	3rd	Wiener SK, R.F.C. de Liège	2	2	2	11	8
	Hapoel Tel Aviv		4th		0	2	4	6	16
1982	Hapoel Tel Aviv	5	2nd	Admira Vienna, Norrköping	4	0	2	12	10
	Hapoel Kfar Saba		4th		1	1	4	8	18
1983	Maccabi Netanya	4	1st	AGF, FC Lucerne	5	0	1	17	10
	Shimshon Tel Aviv		4th		1	1	4	5	10
1984	Maccabi Netanya	8	1st	Admira Vienna, FC Wettingen	4	1	1	13	13
	Beitar Jerusalem		4th		0	1	5	6	14
1985	Maccabi Haifa	8	1st	Arminia Bielefeld, Sturm Graz	4	1	1	13	12
	Beitar Jerusalem		4th		1	1	4	5	12
1986	Maccabi Haifa	8	2nd	Lyngby, Grazer AK	2	2	2	7	10
	Hapoel Tel Aviv		3rd		1	2	3	9	12
1987	Beitar Jerusalem	8	3rd	Brøndby, VfL Bochum	2	1	3	3	11
	Bnei Yehuda		4th		0	1	5	4	16
1988	Beitar Jerusalem	7	3rd	Ikast FS, Sturm Graz	1	2	3	8	16
	Shimshon Tel Aviv		4th		0	2	4	3	16
1989	Hapoel Petah Tikva	8	3rd	Sparta Prague, Wisła Kraków	2	1	3	9	11
	Beitar Jerusalem		4th		1	1	4	7	13
1990	Maccabi Haifa	3	2nd	Lech Poznań, BFC Siófok	3	2	1	14	5
	Bnei Yehuda		4th		0	1	5	5	18
1991	Maccabi Haifa	10	3rd	Örebro, Saarbrücken	2	0	4	6	17
	Hapoel Petah Tikva		4th		0	1	5	8	17
1992	Maccabi Petah Tikva	9	3rd	Slavia Prague, Bayer Leverkusen	1	3	2	7	11
	Maccabi Netanya		4th		0	2	4	4	13
1993	Maccabi Tel Aviv	5	5th	Slavia Prague, Lokomotive Leipzieg, Aalborg, Häcken	0	1	3	2	9
	Beitar Jerusalem	8	5th	Dynamo Dresden, FC Aarau, Wiener SK, Iraklis 1908	0	2	2	3	6
1994	Maccabi Netanya	1	3rd	Halmstad, Lokomotiv Sofia, Sparta Prague, Silkeborg	1	2	1	5	5
	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	2	2nd	Young Boys, Electroputere Craiova  [ ro ], Karlsruhe, Häcken	2	1	1	9	5

Performance table

Club	APP.	P	W	D	L	GF	GA
Maccabi Netanya	8	46	19	14	13	85	74
Beitar Jerusalem	7	40	7	10	23	44	85
Maccabi Haifa	4	24	11	5	8	40	44
Maccabi Tel Aviv	4	22	4	3	15	30	48
Hapoel Tel Aviv	3	18	5	4	9	27	38
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	2	10	3	4	3	17	18
Hapoel Petah Tikva	2	12	2	2	8	17	28
Shimshon Tel Aviv	2	12	1	3	8	8	26
Bnei Yehuda	2	12	0	2	10	9	34
Maccabi Jaffa	1	6	2	1	3	9	15
Hapoel Kfar Saba	1	6	1	1	4	8	18
Maccabi Petah Tikva	1	6	1	3	2	7	11
Total	37	214	56	52	106	301	439

Full European record

Israeli clubs have participated in UEFA tournaments since 1992–93. Maccabi Haifa three times, Maccabi Tel Aviv twice and Hapoel Tel Aviv had managed to qualify to the Champions League group stage. The same clubs, along with Maccabi Petah Tikva and Ironi Kiryat Shmona qualified to the UEFA Cup/Europa League group stage. The furthest any club reached in a European tournament was the quarter-finals, reached by Maccabi Haifa in 1998–99 and by Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2001–02.

Performance table

Club	UEFA Champions League							UEFA Europa League (includes UEFA Cup )							UEFA Europa Conference League							UEFA Cup Winners' Cup							UEFA Intertoto Cup							Total
	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Apps.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
Mac. Tel Aviv [5]	10	47	15	10	16	47	63	14	94	42	20	32	134	130	2	20	10	6	4	30	18	1	4	2	1	1	6	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	165	69	37	53	217	215
Mac. Haifa [6]	10*	47	19	9	19	85	70	12	55	22	14	19	86	72	1	12	5	3	5	23	13	3	18	9	2	7	29	22	3	8	3	0	5	13	24	22	140	58	28	55	236	201
Hap. Tel Aviv [7]	2	14	5	3	6	21	20	14	92	43	17	32	135	101	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	4	1	10	17	110	48	20	42	157	131
Beitar Jerusalem [8]	5	16	6	3	7	20	29	10	33	10	10	13	46	55	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	2	1	5	12	20	14	57	18	14	25	78	104
Hap. Be'er Sheva [9]	3	16	9	3	4	27	24	9	44	14	9	21	49	72	2*	13	7	4	2	22	9	1	4	1	1	2	3	15	1	2	1	0	1	2	4	11	79	32	17	30	103	124
Bnei Yehuda [10]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	30	15	4	11	30	29	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	30	15	4	11	30	29
Mac. Netanya [11]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	10	2	3	5	7	16	1	2	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	1	3	3	6	14	3	4	7	11	22
Hap. Haifa [12]	1	4	0	2	2	1	5	2	8	3	1	4	9	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	10	2	2	6	14	20	5	22	5	5	12	24	40
Ir. Kiryat Shmona [13]	1	6	2	2	2	9	6	4	14	1	5	8	14	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	20	3	7	10	23	30
Mac. Petah Tikva [14]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	11	4	0	7	21	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	3	3	2	9	9	4	19	7	3	9	30	30
Hap. Petah Tikva [15]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	3	2	1	5	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	3	0	1	6	2	2	6	0	3	3	11	4	4	16	6	5	5	13	16
FC Ashdod [16]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	2	0	3	3	1	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	2	1	1	7	3	3	8	2	4	2	10	7
Bnei Sakhnin [17]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	2	0	2	7	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	2	0	2	4	4	2	8	4	0	4	11	12
Hap. Ramat Gan [18]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	1	1	0	1
Hap. Rishon LeZion [19]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	1	3	3

^{Update: 8 September 2022, * currently in indicated competition.}

Statistics

Most Champions League competitions appeared in: 3 – Maccabi Haifa (2002–03, 2009–10, 2022–23) Best performances: Maccabi Haifa (3rd place at Group stage – 2002–03) Most UEFA Cup/Europa League competitions appeared in: 10 – Hapoel Tel Aviv (1999–2000, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13) Best performances: Hapoel Tel Aviv (Quarter-finals – 2001–02) Most Conference League competitions appeared in: 2 – Maccabi Haifa (2021–22, 2023–24) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (2021–22, 2023–24) Best performances: Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv (Round of 16 – 2023–24) Most Cup Winners' Cup competitions appeared in: 3 – Maccabi Haifa (1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99) Best performances: Maccabi Haifa (Quarter-finals – 1998–99) Most Intertoto Cup competitions appeared in: 9 – Maccabi Netanya (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1992, 1994, 2003) Best performances: Maccabi Netanya (1st at Group stage – 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984) Most matches played: 201 – Maccabi Tel Aviv First match played: Valletta 1–2 Maccabi Tel Aviv, 19 August 1992 (1992–93 Champions League, preliminary round) Most match wins: 69 – Maccabi Tel Aviv Most match losses: 63 – Maccabi Haifa Biggest win: Khazar Lankaran 0–8 Maccabi Haifa (2013–14 Europa League Second qualifying round) Biggest defeat: Roda 10–0 Hapoel Be'er Sheva (1997–98 Cup Winners' Cup first round)

Notes:

• The total appearances column sum all club appearances by seasons and not by competitions (i.e. for a club which played in CL and EL in one season, only one appearance is calculated in the total column, while one appearance is calculated for each competition).
• Maccabi Haifa had beaten FC Haka 4–0 in 2001–02, which was later awarded to HJK as a walkover win due to Maccabi Haifa fielding a suspended player. ^[20] The original score is included in the table.
• Maccabi Tel Aviv had beaten PAOK 2–1 in 2004–05, which was later awarded to Maccabi Tel Aviv as a walkover win due to PAOK fielding a suspended player. ^[21] The original score is included in the table.
• In 2013–14 UEFA Europa League Maccabi Tel Aviv were drawn to meet PAOK in the Play-off round. However, on 14 August 2013, Metalist Kharkiv were disqualified from the 2013–14 UEFA club competitions because of previous match-fixing. ^[22] UEFA decided to replace Metalist Kharkiv in the Champions League play-off round with PAOK, who were eliminated by Metalist Kharkiv in the third qualifying round. ^[23] Thus, Maccabi Tel Aviv, the opponent of PAOK in the Europa League play-off round, qualified directly for the Europa League group stage without playing any match in the play-off round. The two cancelled matches are not included in the table.

References

1. A Financial Proposal for Entering Two Teams to the Intertoto Was Prepared in Maccabi Ma'ariv, 5 December 1978, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
2. The Champions Netanya Will Represent Israel in the Intertoto Ma'ariv, 13 December 1978, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
3. Almog: We Decided Upon One in the Intertoto Since We Will Not Be Able to Tolerate a 25 Million IL Deficit Davar, 13 December 1978, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
4. The Condition to Entering 2 Teams to the Intertoto – In One Group Davar, 12 February 1980, Historical Jewish Press (in Hebrew)
5. uefa.com. "Maccabi Tel Aviv in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
6. uefa.com. "Maccabi Haifa in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
7. uefa.com. "Hapoel Tel Aviv in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
8. uefa.com. "Beitar Jerusalem in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
9. uefa.com. "Hapoel Be'er Sheva in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
10. uefa.com. "Bnei Yehuda in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
11. uefa.com. "Maccabi Netanya in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
12. uefa.com. "Hapoel Haifa in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
13. uefa.com. "Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
14. uefa.com. "Maccabi Petah Tikva in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
15. uefa.com. "Hapoel Petah Tikva in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
16. uefa.com. "FC Ashdod in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
17. uefa.com. "Bnei Sakhnin in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
18. uefa.com. "Hapoel Ramat Gan in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
19. uefa.com. "Hapoel Rishon LeZion in UEFA competitions" . Retrieved 26 July 2016.
20. Maccabi Haifa Win Over Haka Reversed; No Liverpool Game Doron Bergerfreund, 3 August 2001, HaAretz
21. PAOK punished with 3-0 loss UEFA, 13 August 2004
22. "Metalist disqualified from UEFA competitions". UEFA.com. 14 August 2013.
23. "PAOK to replace Metalist in play-offs". UEFA.com. 14 August 2013.