West Midlands Police Speak Out On Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Being Banned From Villa Game

West Midlands Police have officially confirmed the reason why they recommended a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending their Europa League clash against Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Villa were instructed by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group (SAG) to block ticket sales to Maccabi fans last month.

WMP had advised that they held public safety concerns outside the stadium and in their 'ability to deal with any potential protests on the night'.

In a subsequent statement, they explained that the match had been awarded a 'high risk' classification, based on 'current intelligence and previous incidents, involving violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Amsterdam'.

On that occasion, over 60 people were arrested after rioters launched a series of 'hit and run' attacks on Israeli fans.

Dutch police stated that there were 'incidents on both sides' both before and during the match.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated that WMP's decision was 'wrong', writing on Twitter: "We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation."

Around 700 police officers were deployed outside Villa Park ahead of the fixture, amid the expectations of protest groups representing both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups.

The Daily Mirror reported that some schools in the local area planned to close early on Thursday.

WMP issue statement on Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv

In the hours before the fixture, WMP chief superintendent Tom Joyce spoke to Sky News and explained the exact reason behind why Maccabi Tel Aviv fans had been banned from Villa Park on Thursday.

He confirmed that WMP had received intelligence that 'a section' of Maccabi fans 'engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism', and that their decision was 'exclusively' made 'on the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans'.

Joyce stated: "We are simply trying to make decisions based on community safety, driven by the intelligence that was available to us and our assessment of the risk that was coming from admitting travelling fans.

"I'm aware there's a lot of commentary around the [Maccabi] fans being the reason for the decision. To be clear, that was not the primary driver. That was a consideration.

"We have intelligence and information that says that there is a section of Maccabi fans, not all Maccabi fans, but a section who engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism.

"What is probably quite unique in these circumstances is where as often hooligans will clash with other hooligans and it will be contained within the football fan base.

"We've had examples where a section of Maccabi fans were targeting people not involved in football matches, and certainly we had an incident in Amsterdam last year which has informed some of our decision-making.

"So it is exclusively a decision we made on the basis of a sub-section of Maccabi fans, but all the reaction that could occur obviously formed part of that as well."