Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef referred Saturday night in his weekly Torah lesson to the intended official ministerial permit for Shabbat soccer games.
Rabbi Yosef said "Woe to us, if there is soccer on Shabbat everyone will play ball, people will come in their cars and our Sephardic Jews, who we are concerned for, those who are traditional and go to pray in the synagogue, they will go to Rishon Letzion and Herzliya...
"What will happen to our Sephardic Jews? Instead of sitting and studying Torah on Shabbat- and even if they are not studying Torah, they won't make such a public desecration of the Shabbat.."