Why do we love football? I think that from the moment the game was invented people questioned themselves about why they love it, I won't be exaggerating by saying that since Nick's Hornby book "Fever Pitch" was published we saw a wave of theories and ideas all coming from the depth of our mind. The surprising part is that it doesn’t matter what team you support you will always find the same answers (usually you will find your self browsing through "Fever Pitch" saying "That’s exactly what I feel, Arsenal are just the English version of HapoelMaccabiBEITARBnei Yehuda). So if you ask me it will be more interesting to find out why we love hapoel, its easier to just love football when you see 2 football teams from around the world (not arsenal, small clarification). Imagine a survey being held in Kiryat Eliezer during an average game (meaning hapoel getting battered by another team from the bottom of the table) about what it means to be an hapoel fan, what will be the most common answer? Well if I was Israel Cohen I would have betted on "what can I say? I was born to suffer" followed by a bitter half smile that is the outcome of years of following our red team. So were we really born to suffer? We were born to have fun. We were born to accept who which is different from us. We were born to enjoy the happiness of victory and to dislike the shallowness of gloating. We were born to learn how to enjoy ourselves after defeats. We were born to enjoy ourselves but not on the account of the weaker. We were born to have fun but not while were smashing the world around us. We were born to be red. "Grandpa Yossef wasn’t a saint To be more specific, his support for the green side…Maccabi Haifa. Our family tradition was unreasonable love for Hapoel Haifa, loving Hapoel had brought us all the right qualities, we learned how to lose in a mature way, we learned that life is full of disappointments; we learned how to be satisfied with little and we grew to be modest. And somehow Grandpa Yossef fell into the charms of Maccabi Haifa…and somehow the man who could turn god himself to his side fell in love with Maccabi Haifa. He saw them win the championship and the Israeli cup, he shone with joy and excitement, he lost every quality that we the fans of the losers had" (Taken from: "our holocaust", by Amir Guterfreund) And that is the truth my friends, whether you like standing at gate 5 and chanting until your throat hurt's or you like sitting at Gate 2 with a cup of coffee, we all attend games for one reason: were having fun! We enjoy what Hapoel give's us, and we enjoy every quality that come's along with it. Even if we'll change our kit, and even if we'll change our name and our badge. One thing will never change: Hapoel supporters were born to enjoy what other teams supporters suffer from. The Spanish diplomat Kanobas Del Kastyelo once said "Spanish are those who can't be something else", many years have past and I want to tell Kanobas, what's right about the Spanish is right about us, Hapoel fans. The year is 2006 Hapoel Haifa F.C. is standing on the verge of an intersection, A big club (not a giant but nonetheless it was always a top gun, well if you exclude some dark years in the 80's) trapped in a small club's figure. Shifting back and forth between the first division and the second one, lacking a strong leader and residing in a city dominated by a more attractive club. A new owner must stand up and turn Hapoel into some sort of an alternative (like Manchester City and Espanyol did) to our green nemesis; otherwise Hapoel will just fade away like many other clubs did before. The leaders of Hapoel Haifa must understand that promotion to the top league is not the objective, it the means. Not the means for a B class manger to advance his career, but a way for Hapoel to get back to the top of the Israeli football again. This goal will not be achieved by buying low quality players and selling them to other clubs across the country, a real team must be built! A real manger with some connection to the club must be signed (someone said Shlomi Shtiker?), the club's young talents must be signed on long term contracts, scouting abroad and signing top quality foreigners on long term contract and first and foremost – we need to stop being the trash bin of our local rivals, how many more Eden Ben Basats will we have to stand until this message get's through? Hapoel Haifa isn’t the trash bin of the green trash; it's not a springboard for young players and coaches to advance their careers it should be the place they want to advance to! The club need's to build itself from its amazing young players; the red kids are the future. A wise man once said (that wise man is my friend) – one more year in the second division with the young players and better administration is better then a shameful year in the top flight with bunch of mercenaries that signed for Nazareth Elite before we were officially relegated.