ARD releases drama series on Israeli football hooliganism

The German broadcaster ARD is releasing a new drama series titled ‘Hooligans’, an international co-production that explores the intersection of football ultra culture, radicalism, and organized crime in Israel.

The series follows Meni, a young man who becomes an undercover agent for the police after saving Ovad Hamami, the leader of a radical supporter group known as the ‘Guardians of the Walls’. The group, associated with Maccabi Jerusalem, is depicted as using hate and right-wing extremism as a business model to secure construction contracts.

Meni faces a moral conflict as he is pressured by authorities to infiltrate the group, finding a sense of community and belonging within the very organization he is tasked with spying on.