Israeli World Cup Loyalties Are Moving from Europe to South America |
How Have Spain’s and France’s Policies Toward Israel Affected Israeli Support for Their National Teams? And Which Country Will Capture Israeli Hearts During the Next Month?
A new study by Sapio reveals a striking shift in Israeli football loyalties ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
A discussion in the strategy department of our advertising agency, Glickman Shamir Samsonov | Publicis, about Europe’s evolving attitude toward the “Israel” brand over the years unexpectedly turned into a fascinating conversation about the upcoming World Cup and whether Israeli patterns of fandom have changed during the years of war.
Israel’s near-permanent absence from football’s biggest stage — Mexico 1970 remains the exception that proves the rule — has long forced Israelis to adopt “alternative loves”: national teams to support for one month every four years during the World Cup. These teams represented footballing artistry and beauty, sporting elegance, or cultural and emotional identification.
For many years, European nations stood at the center of this map of affection. The success of Europe’s leading clubs—whose leagues are widely watched and followed in Israel—made their national teams natural candidates for Israeli support.
It began with Johan Cruyff’s legendary Ajax and the “Total Football” philosophy that also characterized the Dutch national team. Israelis of that generation grew up reading Anne Frank and admired the Netherlands’ refusal to bow to the oil embargo pressures of the 1970s. A warm place in the Israeli heart was reserved for England, viewed as the birthplace of football and home to the first league regularly broadcast on Israeli television. Over time, Italy’s tough, disciplined football rose in popularity, driven by admiration for clubs such as AC Milan and Juventus. Spain surged to the top thanks to the brilliance of stars from Barcelona and Real Madrid, two clubs deeply loved in Israel. France joined the elite tier through generations of footballing excellence—from Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry to........