Pressure is mounting on West Midlands police over their ban on fans of the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv from a match at Villa Park next month, as the area’s crime commissioner demanded a review of the decision.
Downing Street has said that discussions are happening “at pace, across government” to resolve the issue, with conversations beginning on Thursday night.
Senior cabinet ministers, including Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, were due to meet on Friday to “find a way through”, after the ban was criticised by politicians across the spectrum, including the prime minister.
A No 10 spokesperson said that further updates would be coming on Friday: “I won’t pre-empt the conversations, but these are happening at pace, across government, with all the relevant groups to find a way to resolve this.”
West Midlands police said on Thursday they had classified the Aston Villa home fixture as “high-risk” based on intelligence. The force also cited violence that occurred during a 2024 Uefa Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi in Amsterdam.
Keir Starmer and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, both condemned the ban.
Simon Foster, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, a Labour politician, said on Friday he had requested a review of the decision, the operational plan, the assessment and evidence that led to it. Foster said he wanted to determine “whether or not this decision and recommendation is appropriate, necessary, justified, reasonable and a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim” and whether “all and any suitable alternative options have been considered”.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism also said on Friday it was notifying Birmingham city council and West Midlands police of its intention to bring a judicial review against the ban, which it said was “pernicious” and had “angered the whole country”.
Ian Murray, a minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, said on Friday the decision to ban travelling supporters was “completely and utterly unacceptable” and that Nandy would meet officials from the Home Office and elsewhere to discuss it.
Murray told Sky News: “The prime minister has said we will do everything we possibly can to resolve this issue. It’s an operational issue for the police, and government doesn’t get involved in operational issues for the police. But I know the culture secretary of state will be meeting with the Home Office and other stakeholders today to try and see if there’s a way through this.”
Separately, he told BBC Breakfast: “We can’t be in a position as a country to determine whether people are able to go to public events – like football matches, all sorts of festivals or other big public events – on the basis of their race, religion or background. That is just the wrong decision to make, and the police need to look at how they can facilitate making sure this can happen.”
A report by Dutch police into the disorder during the 2024 Amsterdam match found Maccabi fans had torn a Palestinian flag down from a local building and burned it, shouted: “Fuck you, Palestine,” and vandalised a taxi. Maccabi fans were also taped chanting: “Olé, olé. Let the IDF win, fuck the Arabs.”
After the match there were what the Amsterdam mayor called a series of “hit-and-run” assaults on Maccabi fans, which led to five people being taken to hospital. A further 20 to 30 were injured. Sixty-two people were arrested, mainly for public order offences. Four local people were given short jail terms for the violence against Maccabi fans.
John Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, challenged the police’s position, saying: “The police and Birmingham council have ignored my advice. Unlike them, I spent three days investigating the incidents in Amsterdam. Both clubs want all fans there and have fully cooperated in making this happen.”
It is not unusual for away fans to be banned from travelling to away games but as a Uefa-mandated punishment. The organisation recently forced Romania to play a game behind closed doors after racist behaviour from its supporters.
French authorities prevented Feyenoord fans from travelling to a match in Lille in January, citing several incidents of fan violence.
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Ajax were prevented last month from having fans at a Champions League match in Marseille after the French interior ministry banned “anyone claiming to be an Ajax Amsterdam supporter” from travelling between the French border and the southern city.
The West Midlands police ban came after pressure from the local independent MP Ayoub Khan. Khan told BBC Two’s Newsnight on Thursday: “We cannot conflate [this issue with] antisemitism when we look at what some of these fans did in Amsterdam in 2024 … We’re talking about violent fans and I think the prime minister should stay out of operational matters.”
Starmer called the move “the wrong decision” and Badenoch said it was “a national disgrace”.
The former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron described the ban as racist: “‘We can’t have Jews watching football, people might get violent towards them’ – are we seriously saying that we are incapable of protecting football fans from racism? I’m flabbergasted. This is shameful.
“‘We’re not banning them because they’re Jewish, it’s because they’re hooligans … ’ is the risible defence for the ban from people who know nothing about football or hooliganism, but are desperate not to acknowledge or admit their own racism. This is a stain on Britain.”
Uefa, the governing body of European football, has urged local authorities to allow Maccabi fans to travel. The organisation said in a statement: “Uefa wants fans to be able to travel and support their team in a safe, secure and welcoming environment, and encourages both teams and the competent authorities to agree on the implementation of appropriate measures necessary to allow this to happen.”
Jack Angelides, the chief executive of Maccabi Tel Aviv, said he had not been told formally that the club’s fans would not be allowed to attend the game. He said the team had played a game against Turkish opposition recently without incident – though that game was moved to Hungary and played without any fans in the stands.
“You’re talking about a very small number of people in stadiums such as Villa Park,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday. “Stadiums around the world have managed to accommodate much larger groups of away fans.”
Andrew Fox, the honorary president of Aston Villa Jewish Villans supporters’ club, said: “It’s obviously about much wider issues surrounding the Gaza war, and that sends a really worrying message about British society: that we aren’t civilised enough to have a debate over this without it descending into football violence or violent attacks on fans who are coming from another country just because we disagree with that country’s policies.”
In contrast, the Green party’s deputy leader Mothin Ali said there should be a “sporting and cultural boycott of all Israeli teams, like we saw for South African teams under apartheid” because of the war in Gaza.
