Yair Galily

Yair Galily was born in 1970 in Petah Tikva

Yair Galily was born on July 10, 1970, in Petah Tikva, where he grew up. He is the great-grandson of Rabbi Kopel Visoker, who headed the first managing committee of Petah Tikva in 1898. He studied at the Ein Ganim and Brenner schools.

He served in the IDF as an officer in field and administrative units. He earned an M.Sc. at Clark University in 1996. He then wrote his doctorate at Leicester University in the United Kingdom, under Ken Sheard and Eric Dunning.

He was a faculty member and dean of the academic college at the Wingate Institute. At Reichman University he heads the Sport, Media and Society Research Lab and is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. He founded and heads the research unit of the Israel Football Association and sits on a UEFA club licensing committee.

He has written and edited 10 books and is seen, with Amir Ben-Porat, as a pioneer of sport sociology in Israel. At the Paris 2024 Olympics he was Chief Behavioral Officer of Israel's Olympic football team. He is married with 3 children and lives in Even Yehuda.