UEFA confirm Haifa must play home matches in Cyprus

UEFA confirmed on Tuesday that Maccabi Haifa will have to play their home Champions League matches in Cyprus because of security concerns in the Middle East.

Haifa, the first Israeli club to reach the group stages of the competition, had held out a slim hope of seeing the decision changed but UEFA deemed Israel too dangerous for visiting European teams.

The three matches against Olympiakos on September 24, Bayer Leverkusen on October 1 and Manchester United on October 29 will all be played in Nicosia.

Thousands of Haifa fans are expected to make the short journey -- Cyprus is about a 40-minute flight from Israel -- for the matches.

INDIVIDUAL INVITATIONS

Although the club had made a last-ditch effort by sending out individual invitations to their group F opponents to ignore the ban, Haifa had known that there was no chance of such an eventuality.

"From the outset we knew that the chances of us being able to host the games in Israel were very slim, and we were not surprised," Itamar Chizik, the club's general manager said on Tuesday.

"We have already begun to make preparations to play in Nicosia,".

The matches will be held at Nicosia's 25,000-seat GSP Stadium which has already hosted Israeli teams due to the security restrictions imposed by UEFA last season.

Last March Hapoel Tel Aviv hosted AC Milan in the UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg there and Haifa themselves opened this season's Champions League qualifying campaign in the second round with a tie against Belshina Bobruisk of Belarus.

Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv, the two teams involved in the UEFA Cup are also barred from hosting their matches in Israel, they have opted to play in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Haifa are preparing to make their debut in the Champions League on September 18 against United at Old Trafford.

It is a much-anticipated encounter for Israeli fans, many of whom will have split loyalties, as they also support the English giants.

Media reports in Israel on Tuesday say that as many as 5,000 fans will travel to the match to witness what is being billed locally as a great night for Israeli sport, regardless of the result.