Israelis not welcome? Antisemitism impacts Israeli sporting events abroad, fans banned from various matches
New report shows Birmingham police banned Israeli fans to protect them against violence
Despite the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip bringing a certain reduction in the negative media attention on Israel, the phenomenon of banning Israeli fans from sporting events in Europe seems to continue to grow.
On Tuesday, the Barcelona basketball team played Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv (MTA) in an empty stadium, after the team managers decided the game should be played without fans in order to minimize potential violence. The club managers of the Real Madrid basketball team also decided to play the Thursday match against MTA in an empty stadium.
Barcelona coach Xavi Pascual slammed the decision, calling it “a way to punish the innocents.” However, several European cities appear to be moving in a similar direction, as antisemitism grows across Europe.
A new report in the British news site The Times revealed that the now infamous decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match in Birmingham last November was made against the recommendation of the expert police review.
Craig Guildford, chief constable for West Midlands, was summoned by the Commons home affairs select committee to answer questions over the ban, after Jewish groups alleged that the decision was made on antisemitic grounds. The police later apologized for the decision, but that was before the new revelations.
MTA was scheduled to play Aston Villa in a Europa League game on Nov. 6. However, before the game, the police announced that Israeli fans of the Tel Aviv team would not be allowed to attend the match, citing a “high risk” of violence and unrest at previous Maccabi Tel Aviv games.
A police review conducted before the match concluded that a limited number of Israeli fans should be allowed to attend. The MTA team also noted that a limited number of its fans would be attending the match, over concerns for their safety in Birmingham.
While the stated reason given for the ban was an alleged previous history of hooliganism on the part of MTA fans, a copy of the police report released during Guildford’s questioning, revealed that the real reason was “high confidence intelligence” received by police as early as September, that “elements of the community in West Midlands” were planning to arm themselves ahead of the match.
Disgraceful scenes as West Midlands Police were forced to admit that they lied about Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) January 6, 2026
They made the excuse that their behaviour is why they banned fans from Birmingham.
The truth revealed today, is that Muslims were planning armed attacks on the Jewish… pic.twitter.com/PvCbcuPftS
The police review noted, “This is a particular facet of this scenario that continued to develop that potential disorder wouldn’t follow a typical pattern of away v (versus) home fans, rather hostility based on non-football issues between away and local community.”
That same month, a police planning meeting was told, “It is clear that there is a growing suggestion of local hostility towards the visitors based on their nationality.”
“There was a lot of intelligence that people would actively seek out Maccabi fans and seek violence toward them,” Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara told the committee.
O’Hara also denied that the police had refrained from consulting with mosques in the area, some of whom have a history of antisemitic preaching. However, in December, the police provided a list of mosques consulted in the decision-making, contradicting O’Hara’s claim.
In fact, videos shared among the Muslim community in West Midlands called on people to carry baseball bats and suggested keeping other baseball paraphernalia alongside them in the car, in order to appear innocent.
They were literally telling their people to arm themselves for the Tel Aviv and aston villa game and lie to West Midlands police❗️
— BRITAIN IS BROKEN 🇬🇧 (@BROKENBRITAIN0) January 6, 2026
We MUST see arrests for this ⚠️ https://t.co/qHwNiXuZ39 pic.twitter.com/FnD8WpBCbQ
West Midlands Police stated that they made contact with police in Amsterdam regarding the public violence surrounding the MTA match in November 2024 and were told that the fans were “very well organised, un-cooperative and militaristic,” in carrying out “indiscriminate attacks on Muslim taxi drivers, flag burning, marches and Islamophobic chanting.”
In December, the Dutch Police Inspectorate contradicted the West Midlands Police regarding the discussion. The West Midlands Police later acknowledged that no notes had been kept of the meeting with the Dutch police commanders.
Following yesterday's revelations regarding the conduct of West Midlands Police surrounding events involving Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters, we are deeply concerned by the emerging evidence.
— Israel in the UK 🇮🇱🤝🇬🇧 (@IsraelinUK) January 7, 2026
The newly disclosed assessments indicate that the primary threat to public safety and to… pic.twitter.com/AVHubahpgy
While initial reports about the incident in Amsterdam portrayed the violence and unrest as tension between Israeli fans and pro-Palestine protesters, the later discovery of a WhatsApp group, in which members of Amsterdam’s Muslim community planned attacks on Jews before the game, demonstrated that the cause was not hooliganism.
A few days later, antisemitic riots broke out in Amsterdam again, after all the Israeli MTA fans had already departed the country.
The fact that the West Midlands Police hid the intelligence of similar preplanning by Muslims in the community to harm MTA fans, and to instead blame the potential violence on MTA fans, appeared to be antisemitic in nature. The Israeli embassy in London called the revelation deeply concerning.
The Jewish Leadership Council called on the constable to resign over the issue.
Following today's appearance at the Home Affairs Select Committee regarding the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from their fixture with Aston Villa, we join the @BoardofDeputies in calling for West Midlands Police's Chief Constable to resign pic.twitter.com/GruLJCUt0D
— Jewish Leadership Council (@JLC_uk) January 6, 2026
Committee members also expressed shock and outrage. “I was not told anything about armed groups or anything of that nature,” said Councilor John Cotton. “And if anybody had mentioned the prospect of armed groups, I obviously would have responded quite vociferously because something of that nature is clearly of massive concern that needs to be addressed.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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