UEFA has issued a €20,000 (£17,550) fine to football club Maccabi Tel Aviv because of its fans’ racist conduct.
Remember Maccabi Tel Aviv? They’re that Israeli football club whose fans Keir Starmer and a host of UK politicians insisted we should allow to attend a match in Birmingham, in spite of a police assessment deeming them a high risk of violence.
Maccabi fan-ban
UEFA’s control, ethics and disciplinary body (CEDB) made the decision to issue the fine. It stated that the penalty was a consequence of their fans’ conduct at an 11 December Europa League game against Stuttgart.
The disciplinary body also slapped the club with a suspended one-match away ban for its fans, calling their behaviour “racist and discriminatory”. In particular, Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab slogans on the streets of Germany at their Stuttgart match.
As such, Maccabi won’t be permitted to sell tickets to their own fans for their ‘next’ UEFA away match. However, this aspect of the sanction is suspended for a two-year probationary period.
Maccabi Tel Aviv haven’t issued a statement on the fine itself. However, club CEO Jack Angelides told Sky News back in November that there is a problem with racism among its fans:
We know we’ve got a long road ahead. There are elements in the club that are not in line with our values, our morals, and we do expend a lot of energy and have been for many, many years in trying to… eradicate that.
Maccabi’s history of violent racism
That ‘long road ahead’ is going to be very long indeed. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have a long and storied history of deeply racist hooliganism behind them.
Just last month, at a match in Amsterdam, Maccabi fans chanted “kill the arabs” and “gas Gaza”, brawled in the streets, and ripped down Palestinian flags.
Then, just last week, police in Germany launched an investigation into Maccabi fans. One fan allegedly made a provocative Nazi salute at an officer, and another group repeatedly set off fireworks. The Anadolu Agency also reported that:
Police said they were investigating hateful, offensive slogans chanted by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in close coordination with the public prosecutor’s office.
Social media footage showed some fans singing songs with lyrics such as “There are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left,” along with other chants containing hateful and violent language against Palestinians.
Even in Israel itself, authorities cancelled a derby match between Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv because of the violence and rioting of Maccabi fans.
The team’s own fan site, Maccabipedia, lists a popular chant named ‘The Rape Song’. Its lyrics don’t bear translating or repeating. Suffice it to say that it names the opposing team as “Arab whores”, and makes lurid sexual and violent threats.
Charming stuff.
Aston Villa match ban
Which brings us on to the ban of the Maccabi fans in Birmingham. Leaked UK police intelligence from the run-up to the Aston Villa game ban revealed yet more of the same on the way.
As Skwawkbox reported, police sources who leaked the intel stated that:
• Large numbers of extremist Maccabi fans proven to be violent and racist would be travelling to the Villa game
• Dutch police told the UK that Maccabi fans were the cause of riots in Amsterdam around a Maccabi fixture there in 2024
• Maccabi fans had gone looking in Amsterdam for Muslims to attack, despite the deployment of thousands of Dutch police – which then led to reprisal attacks
• Some Jewish people in Birmingham wanted the Maccabi thugs banned from the match, as ascertained from a community assessment
• Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group made the decision to ban the Maccabi fans. It came after an intelligence assessment was conducted by West Midlands police, shared with the national UK football policing unit.
• The UK’s football policing unit endorsed the local force’s decision.
Starmer and co.
In spite of all that, numerous UK politicians tried to portray the fans as innocent victims of antisemitism. Accordingly, they fought tooth and nail to reverse the ban on the Maccabi supporters. Prime minister Keir Starmer said:
This is the wrong decision. We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.
Likewise, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch posted that Starmer should:
Guarantee that Jewish fans can walk into any football stadium in this country.
If not, it sends a horrendous and shameful message: there are parts of Britain where Jews simply cannot go.
The government even tried to step in at one point to force local authorities to lift the ban. A Downing Street spokesperson stated:
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is meeting officials to discuss what more can be done to try and find a way through to resolve this, and what more can be done to allow fans to attend the game safely.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, spoke to the local council this morning, and the Home Office is urgently working to support police to try and find a way through this.
Somebody needs to fetch Keir Starmer. They need to find Lisa Nandy, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey and every other politician and talking head who went to bat for the Maccabi fans.
It would be absolutely thrilling to find out if they plan to call out UEFA authorities for issuing the club a fine. We could ask whether they plan to issue complaints to Stuttgart, Amsterdam and Israeli authorities for their discriminatory treatment of those poor little hooligans.
Or, better yet, they could apologise to everyone they accused of antisemitism for opposing fans who are well known for their violent racism.
Like that’ll ever happen.
Featured image via Badil
This post was originally published on Canary.