Moti Iwanir. Bad results
Photo: Oz Mualem
Nir Levin takes charge of first team training
Photo: Reuven Schwartz
Maccabi Tel Aviv fires coach Iwanir
Four-game losing streak prompts soccer club's management to terminate coach's contract after less than a year
Maccabi Tel Aviv has fired coach Moti Iwanir following a midseason slump that has left the club in the middle of the standings in Israel's
Premier League.
The club said the decision was taken "in view of the run of recent bad results."
The 47-year-old Iwanir had been in charge at Maccabi for less than a year, but a four-game losing streak prompted the management to terminate his contract late Monday.
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Youth department manager Nir Levin took charge of first team training on Tuesday.
Maccabi owner Mitch Goldhar bought the club in August 2009, promising "to do my best to build upon the long-standing Maccabi Tel Aviv tradition of winning."
Maccabi is one of the oldest Israeli football clubs and is the most successful in Israeli history, winning the league title 18 times since 1936.
The Canadian businessman appointed Iwanir, a star player for Maccabi in the 1980s, in January after firing coach Yossi Mizrahi and general manager Avi Nimni.
This season, the team made a promising start, qualifying for the Europa League and winning five of its first six Israeli Premier League games.
But Maccabi was unable to win any of its Europa League games, losing four and drawing just one. A 3-1 Premier League defeat to city rival Hapoel Tel Aviv last weekend followed by a 2-0 loss at Hapoel Haifa on Sunday was the final straw.
With a record of six wins, two draws and six losses, the team is in ninth place in the Premier League standings, with little chance of winning the league title. It has not won since 2003.
In a statement posted on the team's website, Goldhar called Iwanir "a very decent and classy individual with integrity and loyalty, including loyalty to Maccabi Tel Aviv FC."
The club is currently looking for a replacement for Iwanir, with former Steaua Bucharest coach Itzhak Schum and outgoing Israel national team coach Luis Fernandez among the front runners.
