The Israeli coach of the Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda) referred to the war and massacre in Israel for the first time in an extraordinary press conference before Leipzig: “The world of football has let me down, is it all about money?”
Watch his full rebuke here:
Since the outbreak of the war in Israel, Barak Bakhar has refused to be interviewed before and after the Red Star games, and today (Tuesday) he released everything he had stored in his stomach for the past two and a half weeks. At the press conference before tomorrow’s match against Leipzig in the group stage of the Champions League, the Israeli coach delivered a chilling five-minute monologue in which he addressed what was happening in Israel.
“Yesterday I spoke with Michael. Michael is a lovely boy, 9 years old. He loves football, a Barcelona fan. On October 7, early in the morning, Hamas terrorists broke into his house, murdered his parents and kidnapped his two-year-old little sister Abigail. Michael and his other sister, 6-year-old Amalia managed to hide while their parents were murdered. With incredible composure, they managed to call the police and were in the closet for 14 hours until they were rescued.”
Bakhar continued: “This is just one horror case out of hundreds that happened that day. They say that football connects countries, races and people. In football, they talk all the time about peace and respect, and I ask where is the respect for the 1,400 people who were murdered? Innocent young people who went to a party of peace, who were slaughtered one after the other, entire families were burned alive in their homes. Girls were raped before and after they were murdered. A pregnant woman, the monsters cut open her stomach and shot the baby.”
“Hundreds of children were murdered, 40 of them babies. More than 200 were kidnapped. Children, women, elderly people who need medicine, how can you ignore this? Many of them are football lovers, Barcelona, Real Madrid, City, a lot of Liverpool fans, who did not respect their deaths The world of soccer is very disappointing, I must say, and I wonder if it’s all about money? Can money buy values and justice? On the other hand, we sit here in Germany and we know the history. The association and the clubs in Germany have spoken and chosen to stand on the right side, of the victims. This is a small light in the sea Black silence. I must say that my club, the Red Star, were very supportive, the club, the fans, the management, the players, the staff and many Serbian people. It is not obvious.”
“My country is bleeding. My family, my wife and three children, run to shelter every day. An hour ago they bombed near their house. Many Israelis are broken, in body and soul. But I can tell you one thing the whole world needs to know – no one will break us, not even No one will break the Israeli spirit. We will win because we have no choice. The nation of Israel lives.”