Maccabi Tel Aviv Control Battle Escalates to Legal Arena

The fight for control of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club has moved to the legal sphere, as Richard Daiz plans to file for an injunction and pursue arbitration. This follows Shimon Mizrahi's announcement that he will exercise his right of first refusal to purchase additional shares in the club. Daiz intends to present four main arguments in the upcoming arbitration proceedings. Firstly, he will contest Mizrahi's right to purchase 6.5% of shares intended for Levin, asserting his own right of first refusal. Secondly, Daiz will argue his right to exercise this option on an additional 7.5% of shares transferred from the Rekanati family to Levin. Thirdly, Daiz claims Mizrahi acted in bad faith, initially intending to sell shares to Levin but then deciding to buy more himself after Daiz exercised his right of first refusal, a move that would prevent Daiz from gaining controlling ownership. The fourth argument concerns Mizrahi's financial capability to complete the purchase, with Daiz demanding proof of the sources of funds Mizrahi intends to use. According to the shareholders' agreement, such disputes must be resolved through arbitration, a process that could take over six months. To prevent changes in ownership structure during this period, Daiz is seeking an immediate injunction to halt all transactions and freeze the current ownership status until the arbitrator rules. If granted, the share distribution would revert to the state after the Federman family's shares were acquired: the Rekanati family holding 58%, Shimon Mizrahi 14.5%, Daiz 17.5%, and Ben Ashkenazi 10%. In this scenario, neither the sales to Levin nor the exercise of the right of first refusal would be finalized pending the arbitration decision.