The West Midlands Police lied according to a damning report that investigated the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match with Aston Villa, prompting UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to say she has lost confidence in West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford.
It is understood that the controversial decision was taken by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG), led by West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council, which deemed the match “high risk” due to unrest at previous Maccabi matches.
According to a BBC report, the intelligence report that referred to a non-existent match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham has not been published in full.
Referring to the report, Lord Mann, during a Home Affairs Committee session, said: “Early on in the intelligence report, it says: ‘The most recent match Maccabi played in the UK was against West Ham in the Europa Conference League on 9 November 2023. This was part of the ’23-24 European campaign. It marked Maccabi Tel Aviv’s last competitive appearance on UK soil to date.’
“That is in the intelligence report, but that did not happen. West Ham have never played Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“On that day, West Ham played Olympiacos of Greece and beat them 1-0. I think Tel Aviv were playing a Ukrainian team somewhere.
“If that were the case, I would expect, for a proper police intelligence report, that someone would talk to the Metropolitan Police about what happened two years ago when these Maccabi ‘hooligans’, as they are called, came to London, because obviously there would have been problems.
“No one could do that because the fixture did not take place.”
Last week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said police had “capitulated to Islamists,” and that they “knew extremists were planning to attack Jews for going to a football match, and their response was to blame and remove Jewish people instead.” She wants the Police Chief Constable sacked.
The West Midlands Police Chief Constable, Guildford, has admitted that AI was used in the report that led to the Israeli fans’ ban. He previously denied, on two occasions when pressed by members of the UK Parliament (MPs), that AI was involved.
According to the Home Secretary, the force was guilty of “confirmation bias,” and that it overplayed the threat posed by Maccabi fans, and underplayed the threat to them in Birmingham.
Last Wednesday, West Midlands Police issued a statement saying it is “extremely sorry” for the errors and that “we are taking immediate action.”
The Prime Minister (PM) Keir Starmer, in response to a question from Conservative MP Nick Timothy, said he disagreed with the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the match last year.
The power to sack Guildford lies with West Midlands Police and Crime (PCC) Commissioner Simon Foster.
