Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Be'er Sheva appeared before the Israeli Football Association disciplinary court on Wednesday seeking to ease the punishments demanded by the prosecutor after the heated Israeli Cup final between the clubs. The teams were given 10 days to reach a plea agreement, and the article says the clear expectation after the hearing is that a deal will ultimately be struck.
If that happens, several players are expected to receive far lighter sanctions. On Hapoel Be'er Sheva's side, Hamed Kanaan could end up with only a suspended sentence, while Javon East may be punished with no more than two matches, and possibly fewer. By contrast, Zahi Ahmed and Samir Farhud are still expected to draw suspensions of five to six matches each.
For Maccabi Tel Aviv, Tyrese Asante is likely to get a major reduction from the prosecutor's request for a four-match ban, and Elad Madmon may be suspended for only one match. Yoav Ziv is also expected to see a significant cut from a requested six-month suspension. The prosecutor, attorney Gilad Bergman, surprised observers by effectively combining the case involving Christian Blich, keeping the request at eight matches rather than increasing it to 10.
The report also says Kerwin Andrade, who has not yet returned to Israel, is expected to receive a ban of no fewer than six matches. The clubs reportedly understood that a plea bargain is in their interest, because a return to the court would likely bring harsher penalties.
