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West Midlands Police reveal details of Maccabi Tel Aviv ban

Speaking to the Home Affairs Committee, West Midlands Police have provided further detail on why they banned Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Aston Villa game. They’ve also disputed the claims of lord John Mann, who’s the government independent advisor on antisemitism:

“Very, very clear”

Speaking to the committee, chief constable Craig Guildford said:

on Wednesday the 1st of October… I sat down with the Chief Inspector, who is our planning expert, who had spoken to the three Dutch police commanders. And this really, panel, is where the difference occurs between what Lord Mann has said and the information that was provided to the Chief Inspector…

the information provided from the Dutch was very, very clear… they reflected on the days before, during, and after the match as a result of the clashes between the Maccabi ultras and the local Muslim community. …

Police in Amsterdam were very stretched, particularly the day before, because they hadn’t assessed the match as being high risk from their perspective. And they informed us very clearly, and I’ve spoken to the chief inspector myself on Wednesday of last week, that they said they deployed 2,000 riot police on the day of the match.

He noted it was the “professional assumption” of their silver commander that:

over the three and four days of the actual event, you’d need about 5,000 police officers.

So, in terms of what we were told, the ultras were very well organised – militaristic in the way that they operated. They attacked members of the local community, including taxi drivers, tore down flags, people were thrown into the river, and definitely the singing.

Regarding this singing, Guildford noted that Maccabi ‘ultras’ (hardcore hooligans) were known to sing:

there are no schools in Gaza, as the children were all dead.

The Dutch police also told West Midlands Police that the Maccabi ultras:

specifically targeted the local Muslim community deliberately. Members of the local and wider Muslim community subsequently reacted and deliberately then, on the day after mainly, attacked Maccabi fans on match day, both before the match and after the match, as Lord Mann has made reference to.

That’s what we were told.

The Dutch commanders were unequivocal. They would never want to have Maccabi Tel Aviv playing in Amsterdam again in the future.

That was what they said to our chief inspector.

Lord Mann also spoke at the committee, with his performance described as follows:

In response to Mann’s accusation that the police ‘made the evidence fit’, Guildford said:

We have taken a careful approach. We haven’t made anything fit.

Maccabi fans, meanwhile, have continued to generate controversy:

Infamously, Tel Aviv police banned a Maccabi match in their home town due to safety concerns, with this happening mere weeks after the Aston Villa ban:

Despite all of the above, political figures like John Mann continue to defend the honour of foreign hooligans, seemingly over the safety of British citizens.

Featured image via Home Affairs Committee 

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.