The government’s response to West Midlands police’s ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans has been branded “clumsy”, “late” and “did little more than inflame tensions” by a group of MPs. The home affairs select committee’s report, published on Sunday, analysed the original decision to exclude away fans from a Europa League fixture with Aston Villa in November, as well as the advice that led to it.
The committee found West Midlands police relied on “inaccurate information” and “failed to do even basic due diligence” on its intelligence. The Home Office was also criticised for failing to “recognise the significance of the decision and escalate properly”, despite being informed more than a week before the ban was announced that it was likely. The report stated that by intervening only after the decision was taken, the government increased tension without enabling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend.
Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley said the profile of the fixture “should have been obvious” to the government before the ban was announced. “Government intervention was clumsy and came too late, and we reject the government’s argument that it could only intervene once the decision was taken,” the Conservative MP said. “Their intervention when it came did little more than inflame tensions.”
The committee heavily criticised West Midlands police for being “overly reliant on inaccurate and unverified information about the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans”, including the use of artificial intelligence which reinforced “false narratives”. Officers were forced to apologise in January after it emerged that false information—including a fictional match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham United—had been retrieved using Microsoft Copilot, despite the chief constable previously telling MPs the force did not use AI.
The actions by police caused “serious damage to trust … particularly among the local Jewish community, as well as to public confidence”, the inquiry found. An interim report by Sir Andy Cooke found police had been subject to “confirmation bias”. The force’s chief constable, Craig Guildford, was forced to step down and retire after the report’s publication and the home secretary’s withdrawal of confidence. Two police watchdog investigations are ongoing.
Bradley noted an apparent “that’ll do” attitude, and said information showing Maccabi fans as high risk was trusted without proper scrutiny, while threats from local communities were downplayed. The committee found no evidence of antisemitism as a motivating factor but said failure to consult the community had “damaged relations”. It recommended banning elected politicians from sitting on safety advisory groups to rebuild trust. A West Midlands police spokesperson said they remain “fully committed to learning from these events”.
