Arcadi Gaydamak has revolutionized Israeli sports. Aiming high, very high, Gaydamak has invested money and efforts in order to promote Israeli football and basketball clubs to the top European level.
The Russia-born had decided to sponsor and purchase the most popular Jerusalem-based sports teams - Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team and Beitar Jerusalem soccer team respectively. Explaining his motives, Gaydamak once said regarding Beitar Jerusalem "It is not just sport, it is a symbol of the country. I showed leadership."
Under Gaydamak, the football club soon established itself as having the largest budget in the Israeli league. The owner has vowed to make Beitar, which boasts the largest following in Israel, a force in Europe no matter what the expense. With this aim, he decided to start the way for Europe by promoting the level of managing sports club to the European standards. Within this framework, the owner named a former senior police officer, Eli Arazi, as the chairman of Beiter Jerusalem.
Arazi is no soccer expert, but he was selected to lead the club due to his experience in managing complicated organizations. This recent nomination in the sports field reflects also the business concept of Gaydamak, which is to give professional the lead role in order to bring the desired results.
The former chairman Vladimir Shklar was seen responsible for creating instability in the club. Additionally, too much money was wasted on "big names", which their performance on the field was poor to say the least.
Meanwhile in 2005, Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team's budget was sponsored by Gaydamak. The team got stronger, and brought four American players, with an NBA record and other Israeli leading players. The team played attractive basketball and also advanced well in Europe. However, the insistence of the club owners not to give the businessman a full ownership forced him reduce his involvement and sponsorship there. Gaydamak voiced his dissatisfaction with the club's performance and his departure has sparked numerous rumors of an upcoming bankruptcy situation.
But Gaydamak's support has not been limited just to sports clubs from Jerusalem. Last summer, he bolstered the budget of Bnei Sakhnin club, the leading Arab Israeli football team, now playing in the second division. Gaydamak announced that his donation aims at making the club return to Israel's top league. This was not the first time that Gaydamak has donated money to Sakhnin. In the summer of 2005, he also gave a generous donation to the team in a bid to promote "peace and harmony among the citizens of Israel."
In sum, despite some media speculations, Gaydamak is determined to bring Israeli sports club to the top of the European competitions. This will be done not just through money investment, but mainly through professional and business-minded of these clubs.
