{"id":439595,"date":"2026-02-22T12:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T12:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439595\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T12:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T12:34:11","slug":"uk-government-botched-response-to-police-ban-on-maccabi-fans-lawmakers-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439595\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government botched response to police ban on Maccabi fans, lawmakers’ report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A report<\/a> released Sunday by a panel of UK lawmakers into the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a soccer game in Birmingham last year found that police failed to perform basic due diligence or liaise effectively with the Jewish community, while the government\u2019s intervention in the matter failed to improve the situation.<\/p>\n

The committee of seven lawmakers said they found no evidence of a \u201cconspiracy\u201d to keep out the Israeli fans, but said they \u201ccannot rule out the suggestion that political pressure played a part\u201d in what one of the authors \u2014 Labour MP Joani Reid \u2014 called \u201camong the most serious policing failures in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, \u201cevidence was selected partially in order to justify the ban<\/a>, and West Midlands Police were overly reliant on inaccurate and unverified information about the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident has caused serious damage to trust in West Midlands Police, particularly among the local Jewish community, as well as to public confidence in the effectiveness of the force,\u201d the lawmakers said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the committee noted that by \u201cintervening only after the decision to ban away fans was taken, the Government increased tension around the fixture but was ineffectual in enabling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The findings came after an earlier report, published last month, found that police succumbed to \u201cconfirmation bias\u201d in their risk assessments.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDemonstrators raise anti-Israel signs ahead of a Maccabi Tel Aviv \u2013 Aston Villa soccer game in Birmingham, UK, set for November 6, 2025. (Screenshots via X, via Deen1fied on Instagram)<\/p>\n

In the wake of the January report, local police chief Craig Guildford \u2013 who is the subject of two ongoing investigations into potential misconduct \u2013 stepped down in January, a move welcomed by the committee on Sunday.<\/p>\n

British police used false information<\/a> to justify the Maccabi ban, having relied for its research on an artificial intelligence program \u2013 Microsoft\u2019s AI Copilot \u2013 that \u201challucinated\u201d a soccer match that had never taken place, in which Maccabi fans had ostensibly caused problems.<\/p>\n

Guildford initially denied any use of AI by the force. The lawmakers\u2019 report issued Sunday said he did not intentionally mislead lawmakers, but that \u201cit demonstrates a remarkable lack of professional curiosity\u201d that he did not get to the bottom of the matter once concerns were raised.<\/p>\n

Additionally, police claimed that hundreds of Maccabi fans had targeted Muslim communities on the night preceding a 2024 game against Ajax in Amsterdam. Dutch police have since disputed that characterization of the confrontation, however, saying Maccabi supporters were targeted.<\/p>\n

Following that game, a violent riot<\/a> ensued during which local gangs \u2014 made up largely of local Muslims and Arabs \u2014 attacked Israeli fans, in what Dutch leadership described as an antisemitic act.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tScreen grab taken from the UK\u2019s Parliament TV of Chief Constable of West Midlands Police Craig Guildford giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on soccer policing, January 8, 2026. (House of Commons\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The committee on Sunday also criticized Guildford for poor communication with, and about, the local Jewish community, whom the police did not consult before announcing the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not just that West Midlands Police harmed their relations with the Jewish community; their failure to engage may have weakened the robustness of their decision-making,\u201d the report argued, noting that the police were already exposed to the views of those who wanted the Israeli fans banned, and \u201cmissed an opportunity to hear any contrary views.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawmakers said they found no evidence the ban was motivated by antisemitism, but said the gap between the police\u2019s robust engagement with other communities and its comparatively meager engagement with local Jews \u201cprovided a basis for some to perceive\u201d it as such.<\/p>\n

The committee also criticized police representatives for seeming to indicate that the Jewish community had signed off on the ban, which was not true. The lawmakers said they saw no evidence that these misleading comments were deliberate, but that they were nevertheless \u201csurprising and disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

UK government\u2019s intervention came too late<\/p>\n

Despite the problems with the police force\u2019s actions, the UK government\u2019s intervention \u2013 publicly denouncing the decision, once it had already been made \u2013 made things worse, the lawmakers said.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Home Office and Department for Culture, Media, and Sport knew by October 8, 2025, that a ban of Maccabi fans was likely, the report said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tBritain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (C) arrives with West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford to greet members of the West Midlands Police Force at Arden Academy in Solihull, West Midlands, on August 8, 2024. (Joe Giddens \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Government had intervened privately at this point, to make its preference known, and to offer assurances that the Government was prepared to support with additional resources, a different outcome might have been achieved,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n

Instead, comments like those from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called the ban the \u201cwrong decision,\u201d only drew more attention to the game, they said.<\/p>\n

The chair of the committee, Dame Karen Bradley, told<\/a> The Guardian that it \u201cshould have been obvious\u201d to the government in advance that the game could be a flashpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment intervention was clumsy and came too late, and we reject the government\u2019s argument that it could only intervene once the decision was taken,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cTheir intervention when it came did little more than inflame tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n

One way to avoid a situation like this in the future, the committee concluded, would be introduce a designation of some soccer matches as \u201cof national significance,\u201d allowing for stronger intervention in sensitive cases.<\/p>\n


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