A scandal engulfing West Midlands Police over its handling of a football match has exposed far deeper issues about who controls Britain's streets and the fundamental duty of the police to be honest. The controversy centres on the force's extraordinary decision to ban fans of Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv from a match against Aston Villa last November, a move MPs have condemned as a capitulation to extremism and a cover-up.
A Car Crash of Evidence and AI Hallucinations
Senior officers from the force were hauled before the Home Affairs Select Committee for a second time on Monday, following a disastrous first appearance last month. This week's session was, astonishingly, even worse. It began with a newspaper revealing the police's purported real reason for the ban: 'high-confidence intelligence' that 'elements of the community' were looking to 'arm themselves' to fight Jewish fans. This critical information had been withheld from MPs during the previous hearing.
When challenged by MPs, Chief Constable Craig Guildford claimed the detail wasn't revealed earlier because 'This is the first time specifically that you have asked for that detail.' This was met with an 'Absolutely outrageous!' exclamation from Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid.
Further scrutiny revealed the flimsy basis of the police's intelligence. Their report cited a previous Maccabi match in Britain against West Ham that never took place. Chief Constable Guildford admitted officers found nothing on national police databases and had instead 'basically Googled' for information. It has since emerged that Google's AI search had 'hallucinated' the fictitious match. 'We don't use AI,' Guildford claimed, despite relying on an AI-polluted search engine.
False Claims and a Phantom Dutch Endorsement
The misleading statements continued. At last month's hearing, Assistant Chief Constable Mike O'Hara told MPs that Birmingham's own Jewish community supported the ban. This was simply not true. The police had repeatedly ignored requests to meet from the city's small Jewish community, only engaging after the ban was imposed. O'Hara later apologised in writing, admitting no community member had supported the exclusion.
Most shockingly, the police justified the ban by citing violent events in Amsterdam when Maccabi played Ajax, claiming Maccabi fans were involved in 'targeted, hate motivated crimes'. Dutch court documents and police statements show the precise opposite: the violence was orchestrated by Muslim gangs in a 'Jew hunt', and not a single Maccabi fan was charged.
When British reporters contacted them, Dutch police issued on-the-record denials of every assertion made by West Midlands Police. Yet, Chief Constable Guildford told MPs he had a private Zoom call with Dutch police who confirmed his force's version. For this to be true, Dutch police would have had to admit lying to their own courts, media, and British journalists. No record of this call appears to exist.
Calls for Resignation and a National Reckoning
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch summarised the scandal: 'West Midlands Police capitulated to Islamists and then collaborated with them to cover it up. They knew extremists were planning to attack Jews... and their response was to blame and remove Jewish people instead. They presented an inversion of reality and misled a parliamentary committee.'
The evidence points to a force that decided on an antisemitic exclusion first and then desperately concocted a 'revolting tissue of lies' to justify it. There are now loud calls for Chief Constable Guildford to resign and face investigation for alleged misconduct in public office.
This scandal echoes the failures seen in the grooming gang cases, where police in areas with high Muslim populations failed to act for fear of accusations of racism. It raises stark questions about policing, integrity, and the need to properly tackle extremism. The lessons, as commentators warn, go far deeper than the actions of one police force.
