1954–55 Liga Alef

The 1954–55 Liga Alef season was the last in which it was the Israel's top football league, as the following season it was replaced by Liga Leumit^[1] and became the country's second tier. It consisted of 14 clubs, the 12 from the top division in the previous season and two promoted clubs (Hapoel Hadera and Beitar Jerusalem). It used two points for a win and one for a draw.

The title was won by Hapoel Petah Tikva, the club's first championship, whilst Hapoel Hadera and Hapoel Balfouria (who had finished bottom the previous season) were relegated automatically. Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Kfar Saba took part in the promotion/relegation play-offs with the top two clubs from Liga Bet, in which Kfar Saba retained their place in the top division, but Beitar were relegated.

Final table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Gr	Pts	Notes
1	Hapoel Petah Tikva	26	18	4	4	68	23	2.96	40	Champions
2	Maccabi Tel Aviv	26	17	4	5	84	28	3.00	38
3	Hapoel Tel Aviv	26	12	9	5	49	23	2.13	33
4	Maccabi Netanya	26	13	7	6	54	43	1.26	33
5	Beitar Tel Aviv	26	12	5	9	64	47	1.36	29
6	Maccabi Haifa	26	11	6	9	54	41	1.32	28
7	Maccabi Petah Tikva	26	10	7	9	37	41	0.90	27
8	Maccabi Rehovot	26	11	4	11	49	48	1.02	26
9	Hapoel Haifa	26	9	6	11	40	55	0.73	24
10	Hapoel Ramat Gan	26	10	3	13	35	41	0.85	23
11	Beitar Jerusalem	26	8	5	13	37	59	0.63	21	Promotion/relegation play-offs
12	Hapoel Kfar Saba	26	6	6	14	38	46	0.83	18
13	Hapoel Hadera	26	7	2	17	36	53	0.68	16	Relegated to Liga Alef
14	Hapoel Balfouria	26	3	2	21	32	129	0.25	8

Results

Home ╲ Away

BEI

BTA

HBF

HHD

HHA

HKS

HPT

HRG

HTA

MHA

MNE

MPT

MRV

MTA

Beitar Jerusalem

3–3

6–1

4–2

3–0

1–0

2–1

0–1

2–2

1–0

1–4

1–1

4–3

1–4

Beitar Tel Aviv

4–0

6–1

4–1

4–2

1–1

2–1

1–1

0–3

0–2

2–1

3–0

2–5

0–3

Hapoel Balfouria

4–2

1–8

3–1

2–1

4–4

1–5

1–3

0–2

0–6

2–4

0–3

0–1

2–9

Hapoel Hadera

2–0

2–5

5–1

0–1

3–1

0–3

2–0

0–1

1–3

0–1

2–0

4–2

1–2

Hapoel Haifa

1–1

1–0

3–1

2–2

3–1

3–9

2–0

0–4

4–0

1–1

3–0

1–1

1–2

Hapoel Kfar Saba

0–1

1–3

6–1

4–1

1–2

0–1

1–0

1–1

1–0

0–1

0–2

2–0

0–0

Hapoel Petah Tikva

2–0

4–0

13–2

3–1

3–1

1–1

0–2

1–0

1–1

1–1

1–1

3–0

2–1

Hapoel Ramat Gan

3–1

0–3

6–0

2–0

2–2

4–3

0–1

1–0

0–1

0–3

5–0

0–0

1–4

Hapoel Tel Aviv

1–1

1–1

8–1

2–0

1–0

0–2

0–1

2–0

1–1

1–1

1–1

1–1

2–2

Maccabi Haifa

5–0

1–1

1–1

3–2

4–1

2–1

1–3

1–3

0–3

6–2

0–1

4–0

1–3

Maccabi Netanya

3–2

3–1

6–1

0–1

2–2

1–2

0–3

5–1

3–2

4–4

2–2

1–0

2–2

Maccabi Petah Tikva

2–0

4–2

2–1

1–1

3–0

5–4

0–1

1–0

1–4

3–3

0–1

0–2

2–1

Maccabi Rehovot

4–0

2–7

6–1

4–2

2–3

4–0

1–3

1–0

1–4

3–2

0–1

1–0

2–1

Maccabi Tel Aviv

6–0

3–1

12–0

1–0

6–0

2–1

2–1

6–0

1–2

1–2

6–1

2–2

2–1

Updated to games played on 15 October 1955.
Source: 2 Dear Points
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Promotion-relegation play-off

A promotion-relegation play-off between the 12th and 11th-placed teams in Liga Alef, Hapoel Kfar Saba and Beitar Jerusalem, and the winners of the regional divisions of Liga Bet, Maccabi Jaffa and Hapoel Kiryat Haim. Each team played the other three once.

Hapoel Kfar Saba v Beitar Jerusalem

22 October 1955	Hapoel Kfar Saba	3–1	Beitar Jerusalem	Netanya
	Avrutski  5' Ratz  26' Glazer  33'	Report (p. 8)	7' Elfasi	Stadium: Sar-Tov Stadium Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Reuven Frizner

Maccabi Jaffa v Hapoel Kiryat Haim

22 October 1955	Maccabi Jaffa	4–1	Hapoel Kiryat Haim	Petah Tikva
	Aroyo  36' Miranda  78', 84' B. Cohen  79'	Report (p. 8)	34' Handler	Stadium: Maccabi Ground Attendance: 6,000 Referee: Aharon Werner

Hapoel Kiryat Haim v Beitar Jerusalem

29 October 1955	Hapoel Kiryat Haim	3–2	Beitar Jerusalem	Petah Tikva
	Handler  14', 40' Havinski  25'	Report (p. 8)	6' Zion  29' Elfasi	Stadium: Hapoel Ground Attendance: 1,000 Referee: Arie Ben-Rubi

Hapoel Kfar Saba v Maccabi Jaffa

29 October 1955	Hapoel Kfar Saba	1–1	Maccabi Jaffa	Haifa
	Glazer  58'	Report (p. 8)	59' B. Cohen	Stadium: Kiryat Eliezer Stadium Attendance: 5,000 Referee: Avraham Sher

Hapoel Kiryat Haim v Hapoel Kfar Saba

5 November 1955	Hapoel Kiryat Haim	1–1	Hapoel Kfar Saba	Netanya
	Hayat  47'	Report (p. 8)	78' Morovich	Stadium: Sar-Tov Stadium Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Reuven Frizner

Maccabi Jaffa v Beitar Jerusalem

5 November 1955	Maccabi Jaffa	3–0	Beitar Jerusalem	Haifa
	B. Cohen  34' Miranda  41' Kalev  53'	Report (p. 8)		Stadium: Kiryat Eliezer Stadium Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Nahman Cohen

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Notes
1	Maccabi Jaffa	3	2	1	0	8	2	4.00	5	Liga Leumit
2	Hapoel Kfar Saba	3	1	2	0	5	3	1.67	4	Liga Leumit
3	Hapoel Kiryat Haim	3	1	1	1	5	7	0.71	3	Liga Alef
4	Beitar Jerusalem	3	0	0	3	3	9	0.33	0	Liga Alef

Top goalscorers

Pos	Player	Club	Goals
1	Nisim Elmaliah	Beitar Tel Aviv	30
2	Nahum Stelmach	Hapoel Petah Tikva	27
3	Yehoshua Glazer	Maccabi Tel Aviv	26
4	Simon Elfasi	Beitar Jerusalem	16
	Itzhak Caspi	Maccabi Netanya
	Avraham "Huli" Levi	Beitar Tel Aviv
	Moshe Litvak	Maccabi Rehovot
8	Boaz Kofman	Hapoel Petah Tikva	15
9	Max Cohen	Maccabi Netanya	14
	Zvi Studinski	Maccabi Tel Aviv
	Rehavia Rosenbaum	Hapoel Tel Aviv

^Source:[2]

References

• Israel - List of Final Tables RSSSF
• In the Play-offs Davar, 23.10.55, Historical Jewish Press
• In the Play-offs Davar, 30.10.55, Historical Jewish Press
• Hapoel Kfar Saba and Maccabi Jaffa promoted to Liga Leumit Davar, 6.11.55, Historical Jewish Press

1. League resumes in Saturday Heruth, 2.9.55, Historical Jewish Press (Hebrew)
2. Nisim Elmaliah – Top Scorer 2 Dear Points, Izhar Brener, Pirsumei Sport, 1955, p. 20 (Hebrew)