VR Capital Urges Tel Aviv Court to Halt Maccabi Tel Aviv Share Transfers
VR Capital Group and Richard Deitz filed an urgent Tel Aviv court motion to block new ownership maneuvers by the Recanati family and Shimon Mizrahi regarding Maccabi Tel Aviv shares.
VR Capital Group, a shareholder in the club led by Richard Deitz, filed an urgent request for temporary and provisional remedies on Sunday with the Economic Department of the Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court.
Deitz is asking the court to halt new moves advanced in recent days by the Recanati family and Shimon Mizrahi, who over the past weekend exercised their right of first refusal regarding the sale of Ben Ashkenazi's shares to Jason Levin.
The Dispute Over Maccabi Tel Aviv Shares
As recalled, the company controlled by Ben Ashkenazi offered on September 2, 2026, to sell 9 percent of Maccabi Tel Aviv shares to Levin through an American company, in a deal totaling $18 million. Two days after the shares were offered by Ashkenazi, the company headed by Deitz announced that it was exercising its right of first refusal for all the offered shares, seeking to purchase them instead of Levin under the same conditions.
In a decision dated September 6, 2026, regarding Deitz's first request for provisional remedies, the court ruled that the disputed corporate moves advanced by Recanati and Mizrahi bear an asterisk qualifying their validity pending arbitration. The court instructed the parties to advance the arbitration promptly and allowed Deitz to seek further relief if operational steps were taken based on those moves.
Economic Logic and Valuation Discrepancies
In the lawsuit, Deitz argues that Recanati and Mizrahi, who briefly sought to sell shares to Levin and bring him into the club, are now switching roles to become buyers of shares offered to him. The practical meaning of such a move, if permitted, is a reduction in the scope of shares Deitz's company can acquire under the right of first refusal it already exercised.
"The economic logic of the move also raises difficulties—the company controlled by Recanati sought to sell shares to Levin based on a club valuation of about $172 million, and is now seeking to buy shares in a deal reflecting a valuation of about $200 million," the filing stated.
Deitz claims this gap, along with the timing and connection between the transactions, demonstrates that these are not independent deals, but parts of a single maneuver designed to reshape the club's ownership map before arbitration begins. Deitz is now asking the court to freeze the disputed transactions, prevent share transfers or registration changes, and freeze previous moves related to Levin.
