Yosef cursed. He had been standing in Tel Aviv’s evening traffic for over an hour and feared that he would be late. He frantically searched for the radio program, but all that he found was inane noise or a conversation between two arguing politicians. Finally, he heard the commentator, but the static on the airwaves was so strong that he almost heard nothing. If the Mexicans officials were on time (which he really hoped they weren’t) the game would start in 10 minutes. He could only curse.
9 minutes later he turned into his street and ran into his house. His whole family, the neighbours and some club mates were waiting for him impatiently with Bamba snacks and drinks. “Where are you? You’re going to miss the quarter-final”, his uncle called out to him.
But no sooner had Yosef recovered than disaster struck. Shortly after kick-off, the favoured Bulgarians pushed the surprise team from Israel at the Olympic summer games of 1968 into their own half of the pitch while nobody seemed to see the Bulgarian defender Georgi Christakiev sneaking up. After only 5 minutes of play, the Bulgarians led 1-0 and Yosef was shocked. The Israelis fought back valiantly and the longer the game went on, the more the sun-tried players from Israel seemed to gain the upper hand. Then in the 89th minute, Yosef wassaved. The young striker Jehoshua Faigenbaum from the Hapoel Tel Aviv football club rescued Yosef and his entire family and the game ended in a draw after 90 minutes. “What now? You can’t have a draw in a quarter-final?” exclaimed his brother, but Yosef didn’t know the answer either. The French referee also seemed confused. Suddenly, some officials brought a big Mexican sombrero and after some hesitation, both captains reached into the hat and took out a piece of paper. On that of Israel’s captain Mordechai “Motaleh” Spiegel it stated only one word; OUT !
The Bulgarian captain had the luck of the draw on his side and Yosef started swearing again….
It took a while for Yosef, the secretary of the Israeli Football Association (IFA), to regain his composure. “We can draw against the Olympic champion right away. It saves all the effort,” he rumbled. Being eliminated in the quarter-final of an Olympic competition because of a lottery is painful he commented a few weeks later to his deputy chairman of the IFA Michael Almog. Both were preoccupied with their thoughts when Yosef suddenly remembered the first Swiss Watch Cup in 1962, where a tie was resolved by a penalty shoot-out. Michael Almog was enthusiastic about such an option and wrote a short letter to the world football association FIFA, which arrived in Zurich on 24 July 1969.
It had an amazing effect. As early as 20 February 1970, the responsible FIFA Committee approved the Israeli proposal. In the event of a draw outside of a group stage each team should have 5 penalties per team, taken by different players to decide the outcome. Only a few months later the new rules were adopted by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on 27 June 1970 and these haven’t changed right up to today. And when the world celebrates a new world champion in football on 18 December 2022, it will also be thanks to the team effort and contribution of Yusef Dagan and Michael Almog of the Israel Football Association.
Clearly rules and their observance are not only important in football. Today’s business life would be inconceivable without it, which is why the legislator regulates numerous important markets, including, of course, the Trust business.
As a professional trustee – regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA – CAREY would be honored to be in your team.
Carey Zurich; The Company, established in 2003, is an owner-managed Mulit-Family Office and FINMA-licensed trustee company providing tailor-made functional structures to private clients, international families and corporates. Our clients can count on Swiss quality, high ethical standards, efficiency and trust – because we care(y). As the holder of a professional Swiss trustee license, the company is supervised by the Swiss Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.