The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

league in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and the highest level of the

Israeli football league system The Israeli football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Israel. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, and allows even the smallest club to dream ...

. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

with its second division

Liga Leumit The Israeli Liga Leumit (, HaLiga HaLeumit, ) is the second division of the professional Israeli association football (soccer) league system. This second-tier league is placed directly below the Israeli Premier League. Structure There are 16 ...

. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing between 33 and 36 matches each, totalling 240 matches in every season. The competition formed in 1999 following the decision of the

Israel Football Association The Israel Football Association (IFA; , ''HaHit'aḥdut leKaduregel beIsrael'', ) is the governing body of football in Israel. It organizes a variety of association football leagues where the highest level is the Israeli Premier League; as well a ...

to form a new league. It is also ranked 15th in the

UEFA coefficient In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), ...

s of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years. Since 1932, a total of 15 clubs have been crowned champions of the Israeli Football League. Of the thirty clubs to have competed since the inception of the Israeli Premier League in 1999, six have won the title:

Beitar Jerusalem Beitar Jerusalem Football Club (), commonly known as Beitar Jerusalem () or simply Beitar (), is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Jerusalem, that plays in the Israeli Premier League, the top tier in Israeli football ...

(twice),

Hapoel Be'er Sheva Hapoel Be'er Sheva Football Club (, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be'er Sheva'') is an Israeli professional association football, football club from the city of Beersheba, Be'er Sheva, that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The club was estab ...

(three times),

Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv () is a sports club in Israel, founded in the 1920s, and part of the Hapoel association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as football, basketball, w ...

(twice),

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

(ten times),

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

(eight times), and

Ironi Kiryat Shmona Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona Football Club () known as Ironi Kiryat Shmona is a professional football club based in Kiryat Shmona, in the northern district of Israel. The club is a current member of the Israeli Premier League, and plays at the Iro ...

(once). The current champions are Maccabi Tel Aviv, who won the 2024–25 season.

Background

The Israeli Premier League was founded in 1999 to replace its predecessor

(which became the second division) when the

decided to reshuffle all the leagues in hopes of improving competition. In its first season there were 14 clubs; the top thirteen clubs from the 1998–99 season and the top place club from the

Liga Artzit Liga Artzit (, lit. ''Country League'') is the defunct third division of Israeli Football League, beneath its highest division Premier League and the second division Liga Leumit. Before being cancelled in 2009, it was run by the Israel Football A ...

(then, the third division). That season three clubs were relegated and one from Liga Leumit was promoted.

Competition

There are 14 clubs in the league. At the end of each season, the two lowest-placed teams are

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

while two highest-placed teams of Liga Leumit are promoted in their place. For the 2012–13 season the league was decreased from 16 to 14 clubs as a result of reforms passed by the IFA on 27 June 2011. The participating clubs first play a conventional round-robin schedule for a total of 26 matches. Following this, the top six teams play in a championship playoff, where they meet each other twice. Upon its conclusion, the first place team wins the Israeli championship and qualifies to participate in the second qualifying round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. The runners-up and the third-placed teams qualify for the second qualifying round of the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

. In addition, the

Israeli State Cup The Israel State Cup (, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involves clubs of all standards p ...

winners qualify for the first qualifying round of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. If the State Cup winners are also one of the teams to finish in the league's top three places then the fourth-placed team will also play in UEFA Europa Conference League. In case the State Cup winners also win the Israeli Premier League then the second-placed league team will play in first qualifying round of the

. In addition, the bottom eight teams will play each other once to avoid two relegation spots.

Clubs

A total of 31 clubs have played in the Israeli Premier League from its inception in 1999 and the start of the 2024–25 season. For a list of winners and runners-up of the Israeli Premier League since its inception, and top scorers for each season, see

List of Israeli football champions The association football champions of Israel are the winners of the highest league in Football in Israel, Israeli football, which is currently the Israeli Premier League. The league is contested on a Round-robin tournament, round robin basis and ...

. Three clubs have been members of the Israeli Premier League for every season since its inception. This group is composed of

and

Members of the 2024–25 season

The following 14 clubs will compete in the Israeli Premier League during the 2024–25 season.

Sponsorship

In recent years, the league has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition: * 1999–2002:

Pelephone Pelephone (, , lit. "miracle phone") is a mobile network operator in Israel, and also the first company to offer mobile telephony services in Israel. Due to this, the brand-name "Pelephone" became the genericized trademark A generic tradema ...

– a mobile phone company (Ligat Pelephone) * 2005–2010: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Toto) * 2010–2016: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Winner) * 2016–2018: Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Ha'al) * 2018–2019: Japanika – Asian restaurant (Ligat Japanika) * 2019–2022:

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ), colloquially known as The Bursa, is the only public stock exchange in Israel and a public company itself, listed on its own exchange since August 1, 2019. It is regulated by the ''Securities Law (1968)'' a ...

– Stock Exchange (Ligat Habursa Leniyarot Erech) * 2022–2024: ONE ZERO – Digital Bank (Ligat ONE ZERO) *2024- : Toto Winner Organization – the Israeli Sports Betting Board (Ligat Toto Winner)

Number of foreigners

Teams are limited to six foreign players per team. Special circumstances such as Druze players from the Golan (no citizenship) or cases such as that of

Toto Tamuz Toto Adaruns Tamuz Temile (; born 1 April 1988) is a Nigerian-born Israeli former professional footballer who played as a forward. Born in Nigeria, he grew up in Israel from infancy after his father, Nigerian footballer Clement Temile, move ...

, do not count against the foreign player limit. In addition, players who play in the league for 6 consecutive years do not count against the foreign player limit. Also, Jewish players and players who are married to Israelis are exempt from these restrictions, as they are entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Broadcast rights

Television

Israeli Premier League games are broadcast live on Sport 1, Sport 1 HD, and Sport 2 channels, with the big match of the week which is reserved to be shown by

Sport 5 Sports Channel (, ''Arutz HaSport''), also known as the Sport 5 (, ''Sport Hamesh''), is one of the major Israeli television company and sports journalism outlet owned by RGE Group. Available on cable (via HOT) and satellite (via Yes); the co ...

and Channel 1 HD network television. There is also a league review show on Saturday nights at

channel. Abroad, rights to broadcasting in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

are owned by The Israeli Network which broadcasts the matches in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Panama, Costa Rica and in Europe. In the United Kingdom, William Hill broadcasts matches live with English commentary on their online television service, William Hill TV.

Radio

The rights of broadcasting on the radio belongs to Radio Tel Aviv since 2011, which broadcast alongside Radio Haifa, Radio Darom, Radio Galei Zahal and Radio Darom 101.5 in a show called ''Saturday of Football'' which also broadcasts live on ONE TV channel.

Internet

The big match of the week is shown on the Channel 1 website. Since 2010, games summaries are shown online by Ynet, ONE and Sport 5.

Cellular

Since 2012, ONE owns the broadcasting rights, which was previously owned by Sport 5.

Revenue

Main sources of revenue for the clubs: * Broadcast rights * Ticket sales * Merchandise * Toto Winner – The Israeli Sports Betting Council * Sponsorship

UEFA league ranking

;Country ranking in European Leagues: UEFA League Ranking for the 2019–2024 period: * 15. (''20'')

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

(31.525) * 16. (''17'')

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

(31.450) * 17. (''21'') Israeli Premier League (31.125) * 18. (''14'')

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

(28.000) * 19. (''11'')

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League (), also known as Mozzart SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Serbia and the highest level of the Serbian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a sys ...

(27.775) ''Source:''
UEFA Coefficients Graphs
'
ImageSize = width:660 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/2024 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1999 Colors = id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) PlotData= bar:Position width:20 color:white align:center from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:27 from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:24 from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:26 from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:18 from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:15 from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:16 from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:18 from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:19 from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:22 from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:22 from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:20 from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:19 from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:20 from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:23 from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:22 from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:18 from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:27 from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:23 from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:21 from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:22 from:01/07/2022 till:01/07/2023 shift:(0,-4) text:21 from:01/07/2023 till:01/07/2024 shift:(0,-2) text:17 from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/2024 color:bl1 shift:(0,26) text: "Seasonal Coefficients Ranking Graph"

Champions

For the complete list read the main article.

Performance by club

A star above the crest is awarded for every five titles.

Israeli Premier League (1999–present)

When the Israeli Premier League became the top division of Israeli football in 1999–2000, Liga Leumit became the second division. Since then, only six clubs have won the title; Hapoel Tel Aviv,

, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem are sometimes referred to as the "Big Four" of Israeli football. Having won nine titles in the league's 23 seasons, the most successful club during this period is Maccabi Haifa; during the same period Maccabi Tel Aviv have added six to their total while Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Tel Aviv have won two championships each. Although Hapoel Tel Aviv have only finished top of the league twice since 1999—in 1999–2000 and ten years later in 2009–10—they have won the double on both occasions. This achievement was matched by Beitar Jerusalem in 2007–08. Ironi Kiryat Shmona won their first championship during the 2011–12 season, thereby becoming the first

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating ...

title-winners. Maccabi Tel Aviv then won three titles in a row, including a Treble in 2014–15. ;Key

"Big Four" dominance

Since the 2015–16 season, the Big Four's dominance has been challenged by

, winning 3 successive championships, they also finished runners up in the 2021–22 and

2024-25 A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain. The crew consists of four ...

seasons. Notably, three of the big four teams all finished near or at the bottom of the table at some point. (

has been the only one to be relegated so far)

Top scorers by season

Individual records

Appearances

Top scorers

Player transfer fees

All-time table

The All-time Israeli Premier League table is a cumulative record of all match results, points and goals of every team that has played in the Israeli Premier League since its inception in 1999. The table that follows is accurate as of the end of the 2021–22 season. Teams in green are part of the

2025–26 Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

. Numbers in bold are the record (highest) numbers in each column.

Notes

Record of finishing positions of clubs in the Israeli Premier League

''Table correct as at the end of the 2024–25 Israeli Premier League season.''

References

External links

*
Israel Football Association
(archived)
Summary – Ligat ha'Al – Israel – Results, fixtures, tables and news
at Soccerway {{EngvarB, date=November 2023 1

Professional sports leagues in Israel

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...