Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv: Police say they did not mean to imply Jewish community supported fan ban

The match had been classified high risk by West Midlands police based on “intelligence and previous incidents”.

Questioned on the justification for the decision by the Home Affairs Committee on Monday, ACC O’Hara said that some Jewish community representatives in Birmingham had said they did not want Maccabi fans attending the match.

“Were members of the communities saying that they did not want the Maccabi fans there, and did that include any Jewish representatives?” Conservative MP Karen Bradley, chair of the committee, asked.

“Yes,” ACC O’Hara responded.

Bradley asked again whether “there were Jewish community representatives who said that they did not want the Maccabi fans there” and ACC O’Hara said that “a range of faiths, backgrounds and ethnicities… were very concerned”.

Asked again if this included Jewish people, he said yes and added it had been documented in the force’s risk analysis.

A police spokesperson said: “It was never the intention of the officer to imply that there were members of the Jewish community who had explicitly expressed support for the exclusion of Maccabi fans.”

They said the force expected further engagement with the committee and will “ensure that this is clearly articulated as it has been with representatives of the Jewish community”.

“We recognise that this has been a difficult time for our local Jewish community, we therefore have and continue to actively engage,” they added.

In a letter to a local representative seen by the Sunday Times, ACC O’Hara wrote: “I am aware that there is some consternation within the local Jewish community about what I presented on Monday.

“There were a number of questions asked, often with several parts and secondary points. Please can I apologise and make very clear that it was not my intention to imply that there were members of the Jewish community who had explicitly expressed support for the exclusion of Maccabi fans.”

The decision by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group (Sag), a panel that includes Birmingham City Council and the police, to ban away fans was partly based on police intelligence.