The Premier League is already hugely popular in Israel.

Interest is set to soar further now that Albion have been promoted.

The presence of Beram Kayal and Tomer Hemed in the Seagulls' squad will be the catalyst for another surge in interest.

That is the message from Yoav Modai who, together with his younger brother Nadav, has become a big fan of Albion.

They travelled to the Amex last August for the 3-0 victory against Nottingham Forest in the opening home game of the season, which launched the promotion campaign of Chris Hughton's side.

They met with Hemed afterwards (below) and he subsequently took part in a question and answer session on Modai's Premier League Facebook page in Israel, the biggest of its kind with more than 20,000 followers.

The Argus: Modai told The Argus: "I can proudly tell you that the fans here follow BHAFC with great interest, because of Kayal and Hemed. You can see that by the interaction that every post about the Seagulls creates. As a result, many of their matches last season were shown on TV here.

"The majority of Israelis tend to stick to Real Madrid and Barcelona, but if you look at which League interests them most, it has to be the Premier League.

"In fact, there are more PL games shown on TV here than in England. Every single game is shown. It's kind of like a live Match Of The Day.

"Now there are finally Israeli players back in the Premier League, I can guarantee that the level of interest will seriously rise."

The first Israeli to be associated with an English club was striker Mordechai Spiegler, who had a short spell with West Ham United after the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

Kayal and Hemed are not the first players from their country to represent Albion. Moshe Gariani, a lightweight midfielder, and left-back Jacob Cohen made a minimal impact during the club's inaugural stint in the top flight under Alan Mullery in the early 1980's.

The likes of Avi Cohen in the same era with Liverpool and, more recently, Ronny Rosenthal, Yossi Benayoun and Tal Ben Haim were more prominent flag-bearers.

Kayal (below), who will feature for Israel in their World Cup qualifier at home to Albania tonight, and Hemed are set to follow suit.

The Argus: Modai said: "Beram is nowhere near as popular as Tomer, but people respect him as he's one of our best players.

"Twenty per cent of the population in Israel are Arabs and they are absolutely buzzing about Kayal. That's where he gets most of his support, but usually when you talk about him it'll be in context with Hemed. The two are beloved among Maccabi Haifa fans as they played there before."

The Albania match completes a two-match international ban for Hemed imposed by coach Elisha Levi after he spoke out against his exclusion from the starting line-up for the defeat by Spain earlier this year.

"Most Israelis can agree that Tomer shouldn't have done what he did, because you expect a professional to solve his problems with his coach and not in front of the media," said Modai.

"However, there's almost a consensus that the decision to suspend Hemed was horrendous. It's not as if we have an alternative up front, especially not off the bench. "The media created a big story out of it and now there's more hatred towards the coach than Hemed.

"Israelis really believe that when a player is in good form, he has to play. Hemed works hard, plays hard and does a great job for Brighton. That's why here in Israel we want to see him in the national team.

"More than anything, we can't wait for the upcoming Premier League season with Brighton in the mix. The colours of Israel are blue and white - now you know why."