Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Kiryat Shmona came out of the Liga Leumit as champions in 2023/24, the third time the club has won the second tier. The town sits in the Hula Valley, a short drive from the Lebanese border, and the club that represents it is younger than most of its opponents: the two sides that made it, Hapoel and Maccabi, were founded in 1956 and 1970 and stopped existing separately in 2000.

The merger was the work of one man. Izzy Sheratzky, a businessman, bought both clubs and put them together under a single name.

That title, in 2011/12, remains the high point. A club a dozen years old, from a town of the size Kiryat Shmona is, finished top of the Israeli Premier League. Two seasons later came the State Cup, won 1-0 in extra time against Maccabi Netanya, and in 2015 the Super Cup, taken on penalties after a 2-2 draw with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Home is the municipal stadium, open since 1989 and holding 5,300. It has been rebuilt in stages as the club rose — concrete terracing replaced with plastic seats, a new pitch, floodlights put in, and an expansion in 2008 that arrived just before the club reached the top division.

The opponents that keep recurring are the Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva sides. Maccabi Petah Tikva lost the 2010/11 Toto Cup final to Kiryat Shmona and then beat them 3-1 in the 2015/16 State Cup final. Hapoel Tel Aviv went out on penalties in the following Toto Cup final; Maccabi Tel Aviv lost the Super Cup the same way.