Ofer Yannay Says Itoudis Will Stay After Hapoel Tel Aviv Title Loss

Hapoel Tel Aviv’s dream of its first Israeli championship since 1969 ended on Tuesday night, when it lost a dramatic Game 4 of the playoff final series to Maccabi Tel Aviv, which lifted the trophy. After the loss, Hapoel owner Ofer Yannay defended coach Dimitris Itoudis and said the coach will remain in place.

"All year you wanted to fire Itoudis, and he is a coach who has been through many difficult situations," Yannay said. "In the end, there is no perfect plan for an owner and no perfect plan for a coach. Everyone comes with their own baggage. Itoudis proved his loyalty to the club and to our country in a difficult situation, and he will of course continue."

Yannay also said Hapoel wants to keep most of its players and add more. He argued that the club is trying to raise the level of basketball, but feels the sport’s institutions and league leadership are not working properly. He compared the situation to past player strike episodes and said Maccabi is often seen as playing "8 against 5," which he called absurd.

The owner said he does not want to give up on Israeli basketball and intends to spend much of the summer trying to remove what he described as "rotten and corrupt" people from the sport. "I have a daughter and I love this country. We are not leaving Israeli basketball," he said, adding that he may need to act on a broader scale than before to improve it.