Israeli soccer team prepares for closed-door match in Hungary after attacks on fans in Amsterdam

By JUSTIN SPIKE The Associated Press

DEBRECEN, Hungary (AP) — Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team returned to Europe on Wednesday for the first time since its fans were assaulted in the Netherlands earlier this month in attacks that were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Israel and across Europe.

The team will face off Thursday against Turkey’s Besiktas in an Europa League match that was relocated to Hungary. The contest at Nagyerdei Stadium in the city of Debrecen will be played without fans due to security concerns following the violence in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 that resulted in five people being treated in hospitals and dozens of detentions.

Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Zarko Lazetic told a news conference on Wednesday that his team was focused on its game, regardless of what tensions may exist elsewhere.

“It’s not a question for me what happened outside of the stadium. We saw some videos and everything, but we really try to focus on football,” he said. “We’ll see tomorrow what is the effect.”

The violence in Amsterdam came after local authorities banned pro-Palestinian demonstrators from gathering outside the stadium where Maccabi was playing Dutch team Ajax.

A large crowd of Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the match, video showed. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them, according to Amsterdam’s mayor.

The city’s police commander said the incidents had “an antisemitic character.”

Maccabi press officer Ofer Ronen-Abels said Wednesday the events in Amsterdam “had nothing to do with football.”

Before the assaults, Besiktas had requested its home game against Maccabi, originally scheduled for Istanbul, to be moved to “neutral ground” over security concerns.

The club later said on social media that Hungary was the only country willing to host the match and that Hungarian authorities requested it be played behind closed doors.

Hungary has hosted several home games for Israel’s national team for security reasons since the war in Gaza began.

Maccabi held its final practice session at the Kiryat Shalom training complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday before departing for Hungary, the team said on its website.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer