Nir Klinger Says He Deserved a Chance to Coach Maccabi Haifa

Nir Klinger, who grew up at Maccabi Haifa and starred for the club, said he still feels he should have been given the chance to coach the team. In an interview with Omri Assenaheim for the program "Asenaheim Hosts," airing in full at 19:00 on 5SPORT, Klinger discussed his controversial 1990 move from Maccabi Haifa to Maccabi Tel Aviv, his talks with Shlomo Scharf and Yitzhak Shahar, and why he never coached Haifa despite leading every other major club in Israel.

Klinger recalled that Haifa offered him $10,000 per season, while Maccabi Tel Aviv offered 70, apparently meaning $70,000. He said he was ready to stop playing rather than accept those terms. "I said I would retire and not play for those sums," he said, adding that he went to court to secure his release after the club refused to let him leave. According to Klinger, the court ruled that a player is not a club's property and awarded a compensation sum of $127,500, which he called huge money at the time.

He said the ruling triggered major fallout and helped lead to the creation of an arbitration system so disputes would not have to go to court. Klinger also mentioned the late David Federman, saying Federman wrote a check to Maccabi Haifa and that many people do not realize how much the former Maccabi Tel Aviv backer helped the club. Klinger said his mother, Yael Klinger, still has a newspaper clipping on the refrigerator at home showing her saying, "I very much want Nir to stay at Maccabi Haifa." He added, "My mother really wanted me to stay, but I am stubborn."

Asked about Scharf and Shahar coming to his home, Klinger said they tried to persuade him and promised to build the whole team around him. He replied that he had given his word and would not break it: "My word is more important than anything else, and I am not staying at Maccabi Haifa." He said they were very angry with him. When asked whether that is why he never coached one of the top clubs, he said it was possible that Shahar still holds a grudge, even though they are on good terms. "I think I deserved the opportunity once," he said. "Maybe he is still angry at me to this day. There are things you do not forget."