UK ParliamentResources will not determine whether Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans can attend a match in Birmingham next month, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said.
The city’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG), made up of police, council and safety experts, decided last week that away fans would be barred from the Uefa Europa League fixture against Aston Villa, on 6 November, on safety grounds.
Calling the decision “wrong”, Nandy said it was “not for the government to assess the risk surrounding this football match” but said ministers were working together to fund the necessary policing operation.
Her Conservative shadow, Nigel Huddlestone, said the ban was “embarrassing and a disgrace”.
The SAG, which advises the council on whether to issue safety certificates, will review the decision if West Midlands Police changes its risk assessment for the match, Birmingham City Council said.
On Thursday, West Midlands Police said it had classified the fixture as “high risk” based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including “violent clashes and hate crime offences” between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans before a match in Amsterdam, in November 2024.
On Sunday, the Israeli Premier League derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv was cancelled before kick-off, after what police described as “public disorder and violent riots”.
‘Rising antisemitism’
But Nandy said the question concerning the Villa game was wider than matchday security, adding it came “against the backdrop of rising antisemitism here and across the world, and an attack on a synagogue in Manchester in which two innocent men were killed.”
She added: “Following the decision last week, the government has been working with West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council to support them to consider all the options available, and to tell us what resources are needed to manage the risks, to ensure fans from both teams can attend safely.
“If the assessment is revised, the safety advisory group will meet again to discuss options.”
AFP via Getty ImagesConservative MP Danny Kruger said the government should overrule the ban using powers in the Police Act, rather than asking local authorities “politely if they’ll change their decision”.
The minister replied that there was a long-standing principle that the police were operationally independent, and said she was “surprised” the MP would seek to question that.
Downing Street later said that the powers did not apply, and could only be used on “rare occasions” when a force could not function effectively.
Unprecedented move
Liverpool MP Paula Barker warned of a “slippery slope when safety concerns are ignored” at football stadiums, referencing the Hillsborough disaster.
“Ninety-seven innocent men, women and children lost their lives. We have safety advisory groups for a reason, and it’s a slippery slope when safety concerns are ignored, and I believe unprecedented for a government to try to overturn such advice.”
Nandy said what was “completely different” about the Aston Villa case was that “the risk assessment is based in no small part on the risk posed to those fans that are attending to support Maccabi Tel Aviv because they are Israeli and because they are Jewish”.
“Now, we should be appalled by that and never allow it to stand,” she added.
Ayoub Khan, whose Birmingham Perry Barr constituency is home to the Villa Park Stadium, has claimed there was a “deliberate disingenuous move by many to make this a matter of banning Jews”.
He later added: “Those who are not welcome in Aston are hooligans that have a long history of violence and vile racism,” citing anti-Palestinian chants made by some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at previous matches.
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