page_title: Rishon LeZion
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Rishon LeZion / Sports
caption_attribution_description: עברית: חוף ראשון לציון.
context_page_description: Rishon LeZion is the fourth largest city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain 8 km south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area.
  Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, it was the second Jewish farm settlement established in Ottoman Palestine in the 19th century, after Petah Tikva. As of 2017, it is the fourth largest city in Israel with a population of 254,384.
  The city is a member of Forum 15 which is an association of fiscally autonomous cities in Israel that do not depend on national balancing or development grants.
context_section_description: Rishon LeZion is known for its achievements in handball and chess.
  In handball, Hapoel Rishon LeZion and Maccabi Rishon LeZion dominate the handball league. Hapoel has won more than seven domestic championships and cups in a row, with stars like goalkeeper Vladimir Zaikman and field-players Idan Maimon and Dudi Balsar. Its biggest rival, Maccabi took the championship title from Hapoel in 2005/06.  Handball is also a dominant sport in Rishon LeZion high schools. The Amit Amal high school handball team has won the world championship several times.
  In chess, the Rishon LeZion Chess Club, founded in 1939, is one of the leading clubs in Israel, in senior, women and youth leagues. Israeli grandmasters such as Boris Alterman play for Rishon. World champion Garry Kasparov was a former member.
  Hapoel Rishon LeZion is the major football club, currently playing in the second tier, although the club played in the past in the top division, even as recently as 2011–12. The club also appeared in two cup finals, in 1946 and in 1996 and won the 2012–13 Toto Cup Leumit. Other active football teams are Moadon Sport Shikun HaMizrah (playing in Liga Alef), Hapoel Nahalat Yehuda (playing in Liga Bet), and Moadon Sport Rishon LeZion (playing in Liga Gimel). Other football clubs previously played in the city, such as Maccabi Rishon Lezion, which played at the top division during the 1940s and the two seasons after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, as well as smaller clubs which played in the lower tiers, such as Beitar Rishon LeZion, Hapoel Bnei Zion and Hapoel HaMegabesh Rishon LeZion.
  The main football stadium in Rishon LeZion is the 6,000-seats Haberfeld Stadium, which hosts matches of Hapoel Rishon LeZion. Other, smaller stadiums, are located in Shikun Hamizrah, in Nahlat Yehuda, and in the Superland complex.
  The Maccabi Rishon LeZion basketball team is a long-time member of Ligat HaAl, the top division. The team plays at Bet Maccabi Arena, which seats 2,500. Maccabi The team was a rival to Israel's top club and European champion, Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1990s.
  The city also is home to the new 3,000-seats Athletics Municipal Stadium, which was built between 2001 and 2013, with the intention to host international athletics competitions.
caption: Rishon LeZion beach
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