The ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a Europa League match in England has been proven correct after football hooligans forced the abandonment of the Israeli team’s city derby, a British MP has said.
Maccabi’s match against Hapoel Tel Aviv was called off by police on Sunday night, just before kick off, as fans threw smoke grenades and pyrotechnic devices. The incident injured three officers and 12 civilians.
It has reignited debate over a decision to ban Maccabi supporters, who were implicated in violence in Amsterdam last year, at the match with Aston Villa in Birmingham next month.
Independent Muslim MP Ayoub Khan, whose constituency is in Birmingham and who led a petition calling for the Israeli side's fans to be barred from the match, said the ban was about safety concerns, not Israeli politics or religion. He said “hooligans, people who show no mercy”, followed the club.
“Shame on all those disgraceful politicians and news anchors that conflated this matter,” he said on X. “It was never about religion but everything to do about hooligans. These hooligans are not welcome in my constituency.”
The latest violence took place at Bloomfield Stadium, which is shared by the Tel Aviv rivals. The stadium was evacuated, with police on horseback intervening to control the 30,000 fans.
Nine Maccabi supporters were arrested and Israeli police called for the game to be postponed owing to “risks to human life”, with officers hurt in “serious violence”.
“Disorderly conduct, riots, injured police officers and damage to infrastructure – this is not a football game, this is a breach of order and serious violence,” Tel Aviv police said in a statement on X.
As a result of the violence, British police are now “reaching out” to their Israeli counterparts “to gain an understanding on what happened at last night's match in Tel Aviv,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deputy spokesman told journalists on Monday.
“We recognise the concerns raised by police due to previous incidents in Europe,” he added.
The violence is poorly timed for Maccabi fans, who hope that the ban will on them travelling to the Europa League match against Aston Villa in Birmingham on November 6 will be lifted.
The decision caused a political storm on Friday, with Mr Starmer intervening to say the move was “wrong”.
He suggested it was anti-Semitic, a claim echoed by other senior figures, even though the ban followed the standard decision-making procedure for all large-scale events.
Birmingham’s safety advisory group, which includes police and local organisations, stated that its decision was due to the high risk of violence and based on “current intelligence and previous incidents”.
UK Cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson said on Monday that it was “unacceptable” for away fans to be barred from the Birmingham fixture “for the reasons that have been cited”.
“We think it is very difficult to justify and very difficult to accept and that football fans shouldn’t be unable to attend games for fear of what that might cause more widely,” she told Sky News.
Asked what ministers could do to overturn the ban, she said: “The government will do what we can to ensure that the relevant authorities have got the resources they need … we will provide what is necessary alongside the other relevant authorities in order to ensure that fans can attend.
“I think it’s unacceptable to have ended up in a position where away fans are unable to attend for the reasons that have been cited and therefore we have a role to play, but other relevant authorities in the West Midlands will also be taking this into account.”
Hapoel fury
Hapoel's management was infuriated by the decision to abandon the derby and the tactics used by police. “From the preliminary discussions before the game, it seemed that the police were preparing for a war rather than a sports event,” the club said in a statement on social media. “Everyone saw the harsh videos, children trampled by horses, police officers beating fans indiscriminately.”
It accused police of taking over the sport and called for football authorities to regain control.
Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid also seized on the incident to criticise the country's far-right Minister of National Security. “To the endless list of failures of the incompetent minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, tonight was added the inability to facilitate a football game in the state of Israel,” Mr Lapid said on social media.
Amsterdam attacks
The Stand up to Racism Birmingham group said next month’s ban was “the correct decision” because the Maccabi fans were “likely to create a dangerous environment in the city”.
“When Maccabi played in Amsterdam and other places thousands of their fans rampaged through the city chanting ‘death to Arabs’,” a representative for the group said.
“They also chanted, ‘Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left.' They attacked people and caused extensive damage.”
The representative added that Maccabi fans caused trouble at previous matches in Greece and Cyprus and called them a “fanatical racist group intent on spreading hatred and division”.
But the British government, whose relations with Israel have plummeted in recent months over the situation in Gaza, appears intent on having the Aston Villa match ban overturned.
A decision on the Maccabi fans being allowed in will be made in the coming days by West Midlands police. But Downing Street made clear that it wanted them in and was working with the force “to ensure this game can safely go ahead with all fans present”.
“We're exploring what additional resources and support are required so all fans can attend,” Mr Starmer's spokesman added.
