A senior police officer has apologised to Birmingham’s Jewish residents after he told MPs that some had expressed support for the exclusion of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending last month’s match against Aston Villa.
The decision to ban supporters of the Israeli team from the Europa League game at Villa Park in Birmingham had triggered political uproar, including Keir Starmer saying he was “angered by the decision”.
The West Midlands chief constable, Craig Guildford, assistant chief constable Mike O’Hara and police and crime commissioner Simon Foster were questioned on their decision-making by the home affairs committee on Monday.
O’Hara told the panel some Jewish representatives had said they did not want Maccabi fans to attend the match in Birmingham on 6 November.
A spokesperson for West Midlands police said on Saturday: “We recognise that this has been a difficult time for our local Jewish community, we therefore have and continue to actively engage.
“At the HASC meeting on Monday, there were a number of questions asked, often with several parts and secondary points raised.
“In answering these questions, 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.”
The Sunday Times reported he has now written to Jewish representatives in Birmingham to apologise.
The decision by Birmingham’s safety advisory group to ban the supporters was based in part on police intelligence.
The fixture had been classified as high risk by police, with the force citing alleged violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam.
However, Dutch police have disputed the accuracy of this information, the Sunday Times reported.
The Israeli embassy in London previously said West Midlands police’s use of “disproven allegations” about Maccabi Tel Aviv fans’ behaviour during a game in Amsterdam as evidence they posed a threat to public safety in Birmingham was “profoundly misleading, extremely troubling and risks inflaming tensions”.
West Midlands police said: “We provided a full and comprehensive explanation to MPs on the information, intelligence and risk assessment process that took place prior to the football match last month and we will continue to respond to follow up questions raised by the HASC and actively engage with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary & Fire and Rescue Services’s wider work commissioned by the home secretary.”
