West Midlands police to be questioned over Israeli football fan ban

The leaders of West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council will be grilled by MPs later over a decision not to allow Israeli football fans to attend a match in the city last year.

The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa in November was criticised by the prime minister and other politicians, some of whom suggested it amounted to antisemitism.

BBC News has obtained a letter from the Dutch police inspectorate in December, which appears to contradict claims made by West Midlands Police about Maccabi fans' previous behaviour, which were used to justify the ban.

West Midlands Police maintains it banned fans because of concerns over the safety of local people.

The decision to allow the match to go ahead without Maccabi fans was announced in October, three weeks before the fixture.

Aston Villa said the decision had been made by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group, who deemed the match a "high risk" because of unrest during previous Maccabi matches.

Despite criticism from government and opposition politicians, the match went ahead without any away fans present.

Craig Guildford, the chief constable at West Midlands Police, and John Cotton, the leader of Birmingham City Council, will both be questioned by Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday.

Guildford has been called back by the committee, after previously giving evidence last month.

The row over why away fans were banned has been ongoing since October, when the Safety Advisory Group, which includes the council, the club and police, made the decision because of what they said were safety concerns.

West Midlands Police have repeatedly mentioned the unrest surrounding a Maccabi match in Amsterdam in November 2024, as part of the justification for the ban.

During meetings of the safety group in October, they claimed that 500-600 Maccabi fans had targeted Muslim communities the night before the Amsterdam fixture, saying there had been "serious assaults including throwing random members of the public" into a river.

They also claimed that 5,000 officers were needed to deal with the unrest in Amsterdam, after previously saying that the figure was 1,200.

In November, a representative for the police force in Amsterdam said they did not recognise the claims.

Last month, West Midlands Police hit back when a senior officer suggested that Dutch police had only questioned the claims because of political pressure.

But a body that oversees the Dutch police has now backed up the Amsterdam officers' account of what happened.

In a letter seen by BBC News, the Dutch Inspector General, Liesbeth Huijzer, said "we do not see any new facts or circumstances that would warrant revising these findings".

Conservative MP Nick Timothy, who asked the Dutch Inspector General to intervene, said they had "confirmed what we have long suspected".

He added: "The facts on the ground in Amsterdam do not remotely resemble what West Midlands Police has claimed."

Leaked minutes from the safety group, first reported by the Sunday Times and seen by BBC News, also reveal that the police said it would favour a ban despite an "absence of intelligence".

A summary of a closed doors meeting on 7 October said that the police's preference had been determined based on what one officer described as "conversations with piers [sic] and my professional judgment".

Those present, including representatives from the council, police, fire service and Aston Villa, were reminded that it was a "confidential discussion" and "must not be shared".

The Sunday Times reported that two days later, an official at Birmingham City Council asked the police to provide more evidence for how the ban would help ensure the safety of fans because of concerns that it "may be wrongly considered as anti-Jewish sentiment".

At a further meeting of the safety group on 16 October, West Midlands Police claimed there was now "significant intelligence indicating potential for disorder involving Maccabi Tel Aviv fans based on recent fixtures".

West Midlands Police has been approached for comment.