The locals were celebrating Purim in Israel yesterday. The schools around Tel Aviv were closed and the streets were full of locals donning various costumes as part of festivities prompted by the legend of how Queen Esther saved the Jews of ancient Persia.

It is, of course, a place where the people have an acute sense of their own history, although when it comes to sport their memories seem to be much shorter with Maccabi Tel Aviv's triumph in the European basketball championship a couple of weeks ago, a success that prompted 200,000 people here to pour out of their homes and onto the streets, almost forgotten as football takes over the centre stage and the nation waits for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Ireland.

The game is the first to sell out at the national stadium prior to match day since Colombia came for a World Cup play-off back in 1989. "The whole place has gone a little crazy," observes Israeli skipper Avi Nimny as he considers the huge interest that has steadily built up in the game.

Nimny, a versatile and talented midfielder, is likely to be a key figure for the home team in the game although he remains a divisive figure here in Israel, where his widely reported links to Tel Aviv gangland figures as well as the controversial twists and turns of his on-field career have brought him a good deal of unwelcome publicity.

The 32-year-old, who had spells at Athletico Madrid and Derby County but didn't manage to establish at either because, say his critics, he failed to apply himself, is clearly a favourite of Israeli coach Avraham Grant, with the pair first having worked together at the football club of Maccabi Tel Aviv where the player was a product of the youth ranks. But even the closeness of the pair's relationship is viewed as suspect and the subject of rather bizarre rumours here.

At yesterday's press conference both men were generally upbeat about the team's prospects tomorrow although Nimny then said that neither he nor his team-mates "would be disappointed with a draw. I think Ireland," he said, "are a better team than France at the moment and so this is a very difficult game for us.

"The main thing is for us to be in a similar position after the two games as we are in now but France look weaker because Zinedine Zidane is no longer playing for them and Thierry Henry is injured while Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Clinton Morrison make Ireland very strong in attack."

It may just have been politeness from a man who will be buttering up the French media after the weekend but Nimny is not known locally as some class of big softy with his most recent club managers, in particular, amongst those who have encountered his tougher side.

Grant's successor at Tel Aviv, Nir Klinger, initially sought to build his team around the player three seasons ago but eventually became frustrated with him and dropped him from the side. The team did better without him although Nimny came off the bench to score the goal that secured the points needed from the last game to secure the title.

The club's supporters, most of whom adore the player, thought the goal would be his ticket back to a first-team place but elimination from the Champions League at the hands of a Lithuanian club prompted renewed trouble and Nimny was sold to Beitar Jerusalem.

Since then a large section of the fans have run a campaign to get him back with many dressing in black for games, refusing to cheer even when Maccabi score and targeting other players for abuse, notably Baruch Dego, an Ethiopian immigrant who has performed well for the club.

Eventually a newspaper investigation found that the campaign was being funded by a group with criminal connections while most of the costs associated with the release of a compact disc containing a song in support of the player had been paid by Nimny himself.

At Jerusalem there were also problems. The club wanted to release another player, David Amslem, but he, like Nimny, lives in Tel Aviv and after the international star lost his driving licence the management were forced into an embarrassing climb down because Nimny said his team-mate was needed to drive him to and from training.

More recently he has been dropped again with reports of another falling out and there is growing opinion that his form has simply deserted him and so Maccabi Haifa's Yaniv Katan should start this weekend in his place. So keen is Grant to have him in shape for the game, however, that he recently assigned an Israeli FA coach to work with him on his fitness.

Nimny, in turn, is supportive of Grant at every opportunity with the player quick yesterday to credit the manager with having guided the team to their current place in the group table.

"Everybody said when we went to France that we would get turned over but it didn't happen," he observed. "And then we went to Cyprus and got a win that nobody had predicted. We have done well so far and despite the fact that there is clearly a gap between us and the best teams in the group, the fact that France and Ireland play at a higher level, we are up there competing with them. Avraham Grant is the one who got us to this stage."

Come tomorrow night we will have a better idea of whether their faith in each other is completely justified.