In the midst of the protests around the world due to the war between Hamas and Israel and the increase in anti-terrorist alert levels, Maccabi Tel Aviv visited Fonteta this Wednesday to face Valencia Basket on the third day of the Euroleague. Israel’s flagship team (the Hebrew country is better at basketball than soccer) returned to European competitions after the open war with Palestine, in a climate of great concern for fear of possible incidents.

The Maccabi match on the second day was postponed and the squad was concentrated in Cyprus since the war escalation began. In fact, the match had to be played in Tel Aviv but the scene of the clash was changed for security reasons.

Before starting the match, there was a minute of silence that the Fonteta audience scrupulously respected. In English and Valencian, a statement was read for “the victims of the terrorist attack in Israel and the victims of the ongoing conflict on both sides of the border.” The text ended with the request that “peace be restored as soon as possible.” During the minute of silence, the Maccabi bench displayed two large Israeli flags.

Despite the level of the match, the entry was smaller than in the other matches in the top European competition and the fans, who welcomed the Israeli team with applause when they took the field, had to be patient to overcome the access controls. .

During the warm-up, the Maccabi players wore black t-shirts with the slogan ‘Bring them home now’ for the 200 kidnapped by Hamas since last October 7. Furthermore, after obtaining permission from the always strict Euroleague, the Israelis, who wear yellow in their home games and blue as visitors, have played in black as a sign of mourning.

These details and the certain concern that was felt among the fans were the only elements that showed that something more than a Euroleague game was being played this Wednesday.

To avoid any type of incidents, Valencia woke up armored. With the city at level 4 out of 5 of anti-terrorist activation, the match had been declared high risk by the State Commission against Violence and up to 700 agents of the National Police, including uniformed and plainclothes agents, were in charge of ensuring security. Security and controls were noticeable both inside and outside the pavilion.

The tension was latent in a city that this Wednesday suffered the eviction of the Faculty of Telecommunications of the Polytechnic University of Valencia due to a false bomb warning. The fact that one man shot another man early in the morning for a matter that had nothing to do with the conflict in the Middle East, much less with basketball, did not help to calm things down.

In this scenario, Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived at the Valencian field in the middle of a police deployment typical of American movies. The street was blocked several minutes in advance and the Macabi staff entered the pavilion between camouflaged vehicles and riot police vans (with helicopter and drone included), and without an audience, many meters around.

Hours before the match, in the vicinity of the field, it was decided to close the municipal facilities attached to the pavilion and suspend extracurricular activities on Wednesday afternoon. Prevention was such that the exit door of a school near La Fonteta was even changed to prevent boys and girls from leaving through the area closest to the field.

Even the protocol for journalists was changed: post-match access to the locker rooms and media attention in the mixed zone were eliminated.