One of the dullest Israeli soccer seasons for many years dawdled to a quiet close this week with newly-crowned champions Maccabi Haifa and cup winners Beitar Jerusalem sharing the honours in a 1-1 draw that changed nothing.

It was a microcosm of an entire season almost bereft of “champagne moments” and prospects for improvement next season look doubtful.   

The Israeli FA hopes next season will herald a change for the better as the top two professional divisions increase in size from 12 to 16 clubs.

There are many critics who think the opposite and say that more thinly spread TV rights money and club funding from the football pools will actually wreak disaster.

“The league expansion is complete lunacy,” said Haifa owner Yaakov Shahar.

Other critics pronounced that it will make no difference as the same clubs — such as Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv — will vie for honours with the only difference visible in a larger contingent of mid-table also-rans who will pretty soon have little to play for.

Certainly, there do not appear to be enough talented players to maintain an expanded league at a satisfactory level but other pundits have suggested that it might inspire clubs to increase investment in growing talent at home through their youth programmes rather than fritter away scarce funds on second-string foreigners who rarely bequeath a legacy of improvement.

The number of adequate stadiums to host big matches is also a problem, as at least half the additional clubs in the top flight do not have appropriate facilities and will have to share with other clubs at more distant locations.

In the campaign just concluded, Haifa did the bare minimum to wrest the championship from Beitar, the title-holders in the past two seasons, and all that can be said to their credit is that they were the most consistent team.

The current Haifa outfit was a fairly ordinary group compared to those of previous championship years when the likes of Eyal Berkovic, Yossi Benayoun and Croatian international Giovanni Rosso blazed a trail to glory and every match began with a buzz and anticipation of great performances that materialised regularly. Such excitement was clearly lacking just lately.

Beitar, who over the past four seasons were supported by Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaydamak, fielded the most talented side in the league but severe doubts over their future funding in the wake of Gaydamak’s decision to stop bankrolling them from next season has already taken its toll.

The enigmatic Gaydamak made his intentions clear after being trounced in the Jerusalem mayoral elections last November and it immediately led to inconsistent results which clearly indicated that a hat-trick of titles would not materialise for Beitar. If they don’t find a “white knight” in the next few weeks, Beitar’s future looks bleak.

Haifa will play in the later qualifying stages of the Champions League next season and hope to re-enact their famous run in 2002 when they became the first Israeli club to participate in the group stages, during which they registered a memorable 3-0 win over Manchester United.

But Shahar is a hard man to please and as the most experienced of Israeli club chairmen he has realised that soccer in the Jewish state is a far from profitable business.

In outlining Haifa’s slightly reduced budget for next season, Shahar said the club “will spend 35 million shekels (about $9million) and not one penny more”.

PHOTO: Beitar Jerusalem players react after scoring against Wisla Krakow during their Champions League second qualifying round, first leg match in Jerusalem July 30, 2008. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun