By David Gold
August 17 – Israel’s national team were forced to use a decoy bus when leaving the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in Budapest after facing Hungary in a friendly this week.
Manager Eli Guttman told reporters upon arriving back in Tel-Aviv that there had been a threat against the team during their trip to Hungary.
“I don’t know how much was known about this in Israel, the players were aware, but there were very severe warnings of a possible attack,” Guttman was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The match passed off without incident as Hungary and Israel played out a 1-1 draw, but Guttman said they were forced into evasive measures after the game’s conclusion.
“Our bus was sent out of the stadium after the match with a police escort and sirens sounding so that people would think it was us,” Guttman explained.
“We were asked to stay behind and we left later in a bus with the blinds drawn.”
Israelis are regularly targeted by Islamic terrorists across the world.
Recently five Israeli tourists were murdered by a suicide bomber as they boarded a bus at an airport in Bulgaria.
Israeli sportsmen and women have been targeted before, including at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games, where eleven athletes and coaches were murdered along with a German policeman after being taken hostage by a Palestinian terrorist group.
Guttman’s side begin their World Cup qualifying campaign for Brazil 2014 next month, and face Russia, Portugal, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan and Luxembourg in their group.
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