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The government has said it is “doing everything in our power” to overturn a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a football match in Birmingham and is exploring what additional resources could be required.
On Thursday, Aston Villa said the city’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) decided that fans of the Israeli club should not be permitted to attend the Europa League fixture on 6 November over safety concerns.
Facing mounting pressure to resolve the situation, the government said it was working with police and exploring what additional resources are required.
A meeting of the SAG to discuss the match is expected next week, the Home Office said.
“No one should be stopped from watching a football game simply because of who they are,” a government spokesperson said.
They added the government was working with police and other bodies to ensure the game could “safely go ahead with all fans present”.
After it was announced on Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer called the move to block fans attending “wrong”, adding “we will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets”. There has also been criticism from other party leaders.
The SAG, which advises the council on whether to issue safety certificates, will review the decision if West Midlands Police changes its risk assessment for the match, Birmingham City Council said.
On Thursday, West Midlands Police said it had classified the fixture as “high risk” based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including “violent clashes and hate crime offences” between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans before a match in Amsterdam in November 2024.
More than 60 people were arrested over the violence, which city officials described as a “toxic combination of antisemitism, hooliganism, and anger” over the war in Gaza, Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Home Office was briefed that restrictions on visiting fans might be imposed last week, but the BBC understands officials were not informed about the final decision until Thursday.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the revelation left the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, with “serious questions to answer” about why her department did “nothing” to avert the ban.
She said: “This is a weak government that fails to act when required.”
A source close to Mahmood told the BBC that “this is categorically untrue”.
“The first time the home secretary knew that the fans were being banned was last night,” they added.
Getty Images
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans gathered ahead of last year’s match with Ajax in Amsterdam
The decision has also been criticised by the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, as well as Israeli government officials.
But the Green Party backed the decision, saying it was “irresponsible” for Starmer to question a local authority’s safety decision.
Ayoub Khan, an independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr who campaigned on a pro-Gaza platform in last year’s general election, said the decision to ban fans was a “moral question” and not just about public safety.
Speaking on BBC’s Politics Midlands, Khan said the rules applied to “Russian football teams which have been banned from European competitions because of their atrocities in Ukraine” should also “apply with Israeli football teams”.
Khan, who has also raised concerns about safety and public order, said that even if additional resources were provided to West Midlands Police, the fans should not be allowed to attend, citing last year’s violence in Amsterdam.
Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen who was held hostage in Gaza and released in January, said she was “shocked to my core with this outrageous decision”.
Ms Damari, who described herself as a “die-hard fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv”, said: “Football is a way of bringing people together irrespective of their faith, colour or religion and this disgusting decision does the exact opposite.”
Several sporting events have seen protests over the war in Gaza, including in recent World Cup qualifiers.
Earlier this month, 22 people were arrested near the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo when Israel’s national team played Norway. Reports said tear gas was used after several demonstrators broke through police barriers.
A few days later, Israel’s national team played its next qualifier against Italy in the northern city of Udine, where around 5,000 protesters took part in a march ahead of the game. Clashes with police broke out, with a number of people arrested.
In Spain on Wednesday, a protest over Euroleague’s basketball game between Valencia and Hapoel Tel Aviv saw several people arrested.
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