Maccabi Tel Aviv game at Besiktas moved to Hungary

The Europa League match between Besiktas and Maccabi Tel Aviv has been moved from Istanbul to Debrecen in Hungary, UEFA announced on Monday.

"The match will be played behind closed doors following a decision of the local Hungarian authorities," the governing body of European football said in a statement.

Last Thursday, when Maccabi Tel Aviv visited Ajax in the Europa League, supporters were attacked in Amsterdam, triggering international condemnation. 

Five Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were briefly hospitalised and around 60 people were arrested, according to the Dutch police.

Four days before those incidents, Besiktas had announced that their match with Tel Aviv, on November 28, would be played "in a neutral country" for security reasons.

The meeting between the two clubs was considered high-risk, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepping up his verbal attacks on Israeli leaders since the start of the war in Gaza. 

Anti-Israel demonstrations, encouraged by the Turkish government, have been taking place across the country for more than a year. 

Last year, Israel advised its nationals and diplomats in Turkey to leave the country.