# 1987–88 Liga Leumit

The 1987–88 Liga Leumit season saw the league experiment with a split-league system. After the first two rounds (26 matches), the league split, with the top eight clubs forming a Championship group and the bottom six forming a Relegation group. Within the groups, the clubs played each other once more.
Hapoel Tel Aviv won the title whilst Hapoel Lod and Maccabi Petah Tikva were relegated to Liga Artzit. Zahi Armeli of Maccabi Haifa was the league's top scorer with 25 goals.
The following season the league continued to use the split league system, but had six clubs in the Championship group and eight in the Relegation group.

## Regular season
### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Hapoel Tel Aviv | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 30 | 18 | +12 | 49 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 2 | Maccabi Netanya | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 42 | 28 | +14 | 47 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 3 | Shimshon Tel Aviv | 26 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 31 | 21 | +10 | 41 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 4 | Hapoel Kfar Saba | 26 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 29 | 25 | +4 | 40 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 5 | Hapoel Petah Tikva | 26 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 37 | 33 | +4 | 38 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 6 | Hapoel Be'er Sheva | 26 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 38 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 7 | Beitar Tel Aviv | 26 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 31 | 23 | +8 | 36 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 8 | Tzafririm Holon | 26 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 25 | 23 | +2 | 33 | Qualification for the championship round |
| 9 | Maccabi Haifa | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 32 | 29 | +3 | 32 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 10 | Bnei Yehuda | 26 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 21 | 18 | +3 | 32 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 11 | Beitar Jerusalem | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 32 | 36 | −4 | 32 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 12 | Maccabi Tel Aviv | 26 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 29 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 13 | Hapoel Lod | 26 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 16 | 56 | −40 | 18 | Qualification for the relegation round |
| 14 | Maccabi Petah Tikva | 26 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 15 | 39 | −24 | 14 | Qualification for the relegation round |

### Results

| Home \ Away | BEI | BTA | BnY | HBS | HKS | HLD | HPT | HTA | MHA | MNE | MPT | MTA | STA | TZH |
| Beitar Jerusalem | — | 0–4 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 4–3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 0–1 |
| Beitar Tel Aviv | 2–1 | — | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 |
| Bnei Yehuda | 0–1 | 0–0 | — | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 |
| Hapoel Be'er Sheva | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | — | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 |
| Hapoel Kfar Saba | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | — | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 |
| Hapoel Lod | 1–0 | 0–4 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | — | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–6 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 |
| Hapoel Petah Tikva | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 4–0 | — | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 5–2 | 2–0 |
| Hapoel Tel Aviv | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | — | 1–5 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| Maccabi Haifa | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | — | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 |
| Maccabi Netanya | 1–3 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 4–1 | 4–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | — | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–1 |
| Maccabi Petah Tikva | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–3 | — | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 |
| Maccabi Tel Aviv | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 3–0 | 5–1 | 4–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 3–1 | — | 2–1 | 0–1 |
| Shimshon Tel Aviv | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | — | 0–0 |
| Tzafririm Holon | 0–1 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | — |

## Playoffs
### Top playoff
#### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Hapoel Tel Aviv (C) | 33 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 43 | 23 | +20 | 66 | |
| 2 | Maccabi Netanya | 33 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 56 | 35 | +21 | 60 | |
| 3 | Hapoel Be'er Sheva | 33 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 33 | 22 | +11 | 52 | |
| 4 | Shimshon Tel Aviv | 33 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 35 | 33 | +2 | 50 | Qualification for the Intertoto Cup |
| 5 | Hapoel Petah Tikva | 33 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 47 | 41 | +6 | 46 | |
| 6 | Hapoel Kfar Saba | 33 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 33 | 31 | +2 | 45 | |
| 7 | Beitar Tel Aviv | 33 | 9 | 13 | 11 | 38 | 40 | −2 | 40 | |
| 8 | Tzafririm Holon | 33 | 9 | 13 | 11 | 32 | 34 | −2 | 40 | |

#### Results

| Home \ Away | BTA | HBS | HKS | HPT | HTA | MNE | STA | TZH |
| Beitar Tel Aviv | — | — | — | 1–5 | 0–2 | — | 1–2 | — |
| Hapoel Be'er Sheva | 2–1 | — | 0–0 | — | — | 1–1 | — | — |
| Hapoel Kfar Saba | 1–2 | — | — | 2–0 | — | 1–1 | — | 0–1 |
| Hapoel Petah Tikva | — | 1–2 | — | — | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | — |
| Hapoel Tel Aviv | — | 2–1 | 1–0 | — | — | 1–1 | — | 4–2 |
| Maccabi Netanya | 2–2 | — | — | 2–1 | — | — | 3–0 | 4–1 |
| Shimshon Tel Aviv | — | 0–4 | 1–0 | — | 0–2 | — | — | 1–0 |
| Tzafririm Holon | 3–0 | 0–2 | — | 0–0 | — | — | — | — |

### Bottom playoff
#### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 9 | Maccabi Haifa | 31 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 56 | 33 | +23 | 47 | |
| 10 | Bnei Yehuda | 31 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 28 | 23 | +5 | 44 | |
| 11 | Beitar Jerusalem | 31 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 38 | 42 | −4 | 39 | Qualification for the Intertoto Cup |
| 12 | Maccabi Tel Aviv | 31 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 43 | 43 | 0 | 36 | |
| 13 | Hapoel Lod (R) | 31 | 3 | 9 | 19 | 17 | 69 | −52 | 18 | Relegated to Liga Artzit |
| 14 | Maccabi Petah Tikva (R) | 31 | 3 | 8 | 20 | 19 | 49 | −30 | 17 | Relegated to Liga Artzit |

#### Results

| Home \ Away | BEI | BnY | HLD | MHA | MPT | MTA |
| Beitar Jerusalem | — | — | — | 2–4 | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| Bnei Yehuda | 1–0 | — | 2–0 | — | 1–0 | — |
| Hapoel Lod | 0–1 | — | — | 0–4 | — | — |
| Maccabi Haifa | — | 4–1 | — | — | 2–1 | 10–0 |
| Maccabi Petah Tikva | — | — | 3–0 | — | — | 0–5 |
| Maccabi Tel Aviv | — | 1–2 | 3–1 | — | — | — |