Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were banned from attending their Europa League match against Aston Villa after West Midlands police received intelligence that the greatest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club, it has emerged.
Intelligence shared by Dutch police indicated that extreme Maccabi fans had instigated trouble in Amsterdam last year, randomly attacking Muslims. The subsequent reprisal violence required a huge Dutch police operation involving 5,000 officers over three days to quell.
A community impact assessment by West Midlands police noted that some Jewish people wanted the Maccabi fans banned because of the likely trouble if they attended the Birmingham fixture on 6 November. The assessment did not consider whether the ban could be seen as antisemitic.
The ban, imposed by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group after an intelligence assessment by West Midlands police and backed by the UK football policing unit, has been criticised by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as 'the wrong decision'. However, sources said the extreme Maccabi fans, with a history of violence and racist taunts, posed the biggest threat.
Reversing the ban would have required drafting 1,500 to 2,000 riot officers from across the UK at an estimated cost of £6 million. Maccabi Tel Aviv subsequently announced they would not sell their allocation of about 2,400 tickets for the match.
