The team everyone abandoned: Ironi Kiryat Shmona, three years without home

The date of October 7 symbolizes a point of fracture for an entire country, but for Ironi Kiryat Shmona it also marks the beginning of the longest exile in Israeli soccer history. Three years have passed since that fateful day, and the club from the northern tip of the country is completing three full years without playing even a single home match at its municipal stadium, and for most of the period without the ability to maintain a basic training routine in its natural environment.

The implications of this situation are dramatic and touch almost every possible level, from the financial to the professional to the identity of the club. Financially, Kiryat Shmona has had to cope with unprecedented expenses. Everything, without exception, moved to the central region. The significance is renting apartments for players and technical staff members in expensive, high-demand areas, paying for alternative training grounds, endless travel, and complex logistics that drain millions of shekels from the budget that could have been directed toward upgrading the squad.

Professionally, the concept of "home" has become a synonym for wandering. True, Kiryat Shmona was never a club that enjoyed tens of thousands of fans in the stands, but it had its fortress and its loyal hard core that would attend every match and generate a home atmosphere. Today, even this core struggles to reach the center of the country due to the distance and cost. When the team hosts matches at a relatively large stadium such as the one in Netanya, those same hundreds of devoted fans are swallowed up inside empty stands, and the sense of home is almost erased.

"Three years without a home, it is hard to even explain in words what that means," said club CEO Yossi Edri in a monologue illustrating the magnitude of the break. "In the beginning, we told ourselves it was temporary, that we would return soon. But time passed, and that 'soon' became three years. Kiryat Shmona is not just an address and not just a stadium. It is the home of the club, of the employees, of the players, and of the fans. When you operate outside your home for three years, something fundamental in your identity is missing."

Edri added and described the club's daily routine: "We as a team moved and are moving from Netanya to Shefayim, to hotels, to other training grounds, and each time we tried to rebuild a sense of routine. But it is impossible to truly create a routine when you know your home is still behind you and there is still no certainty as to when you can actually return to it. I think one of the things hardest to understand from the outside is that it is not just about soccer. Behind the club are people who have been living for three years in a reality of displacement. Players, staff members, employees, and families. Every one of them pays a personal price."

Despite everything, Kiryat Shmona managed in recent years to perform quite a few miracles regarding professional management, finding high-quality foreign players such as Sekou Bangoura, Cristian Martinez, and Adrian Ugarriza. But behind the scenes, the battle for the hearts of foreign players is much harder than at other teams in the league.

Last season, for example, the club had already closed all the details with a high-quality foreign player whom the technical staff strongly wanted. The contract was ready for signature, but right before the final agreement, the player opened a map application on his phone to check where Kiryat Shmona is located. When he realized that the city sits right on the border with Lebanon, he panicked and asked to cancel the deal immediately. At the club, officials tried to explain to him that the team trains and plays in the central region, but the player wondered: "And what will happen on the day you return there?" and refused to sign.

"There was indeed such an incident, and to be honest, not only one," confirmed a source at the club in a conversation with Walla Sport. "It is difficult for all teams in the country to bring foreign players in the current situation, but in today's reality, when a foreign player opens a map and sees where Kiryat Shmona is located, it drastically reduces our ability to sign him. It requires double and redoubled persuasion efforts from us."

Last season, preparations had already begun at Kiryat Shmona for a return home. After such a long exile, the team received the long-awaited authorization, and the lower-playoff matches were scheduled to take place at the stadium in the northern city. A short time earlier, the team had even returned to train in Kiryat Shmona, and it appeared that normalcy was about to return to the club's routine.

However, another campaign then began against Iran. The rosy dreams turned once again into a nightmare, the return home was postponed, and training sessions were once again moved out of the northern city. "It was a serious heartbreaker," recalled a player on the team. "We wanted so much to return to our home and saw that it was happening, and then at the last moment everything was canceled again."

At the club, officials hope that by the end of the current year the team will at least be able to return to training in the North, but regarding a return to official matches at the home stadium, the fog remains thick. Inside the club, sharp criticism is voiced against the relevant authorities, claiming that insufficient efforts were made to promote and push for the return home.

"The state constantly speaks about the North and its restoration, but in practice, even one of the region's few sources of pride - our club - interests nobody," said a source at the club in anger. "How can it be that it is not at the top of priorities to restore sanity to this city through the club? soccer is the strongest community anchor that exists, and when we are left outside, the entire city is left outside."

CEO Yossi Edri summarized the sense of struggle and the remaining hope: "As a club, we did everything to continue existing and not let reality win over us. We played, we trained, we fought for our place in the league. But inside all of this, there was always a feeling that the most basic thing was missing, home. After three years, I no longer want to talk about 'when the situation permits' or 'when we can return.' I want to talk about the day Kiryat Shmona truly returns to being the home of Ironi Kiryat Shmona and its people. Three years after October 7, the thing I want most is something that sounds allegedly like the simplest thing in the world: To go home."