Two Villarreal professionals boycott minute's silence for Israel
A minute's silence was held before the Europa League match between Maccabi Haifa and FC Villarreal to commemorate the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7. However, two footballers from the Spanish top club were absent.
In theory, it was a home game when Maccabi Haifa hosted FC Villarreal on the fourth group match day of the Europa League. In practice, however, the match between the Israeli soccer champions and last year's Spanish fifth-placed team took place in Cyprus, in the port city of Larnaca. Security concerns are too great due to the war that Israel has been waging since 7 October as a result of the brutal attack by the radical Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. Haifa's 2:1 defeat in front of empty stands faded into the background due to the events shortly before kick-off.
Two FC Villarreal professionals refused to take part in the minute's silence in memory of the more than 1,400 people killed in the Hamas attack. Aissa Mandi, a 73-time Algerian international born in France, and Ilias Akhomach, a Spanish U21 international who played for Morocco at U15 level and won the North African Championship with the Moroccan team. The duo were missing when the teams lined up in the center circle. Eleven Maccabi footballers faced just nine Villarreal players. Mandi and Akhomach only entered the pitch afterwards.
The Israeli sports website "Sport5" reported that a representative of Haifa was outraged by this behavior. This was "underground and unacceptable. Everyone saw the true face of these players today". According to the "Bild" newspaper, the official match observer is said to have recorded the refusal in his match report, so a retrospective penalty is at least conceivable. However, nothing is known about an investigation into the two footballers.
The Express reported that Villarreal had previously made it clear to Maccabi Haifa and UEFA that the minute's silence should be for all victims of the war in Israel, including the Palestinian victims. " Football Espana wrote that 32-year-old Mandi and 19-year-old Akhomach had boycotted the action because this request had been rejected.
Source: www.ntv.de
