British police used false information to justify a ban on Israeli fans attending a game in Birmingham earlier this month, Dutch law enforcement told London’s Sunday Times newspaper.
The Aston Villa soccer club announced last month that no Maccabi fans would be allowed at the game following a police assessment that classified the fixture as “high risk,” citing “violent clashes and hate crime offenses” during a Europa League match in Amsterdam between Maccabi and local team Ajax last November.
According to the Sunday Times, the decision over the Birmingham game was made as a result of a confidential report in which British police claimed that Israeli fans threw “innocent members of the public into the river,” that 500-600 “intentionally targeted Muslim communities” and that the violence forced the deployment of 5,000 police officers.
However, Dutch law enforcement told the newspaper the examples used to justify the ban were false.
Amsterdam police spokesman Sebastiaan Meijer told The Times that the only person thrown into the canal during the violence last year appeared to have been a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan, who was told he could only get out of the freezing water if he said “Free Palestine.”
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Regarding the claim that hundreds of Israeli fans deliberately targeted the Muslim community, Dutch police said that in fact there were small groups that got into fights and that they did not have a figure for the number involved. Meijer said that while Maccabi fans were involved, it was “not a lot and not in a very alarming way.”
????Shame and disgrace: a Jew was thrown into the river in Amsterdam, and was not allowed to leave until he said “FREE PALESTINE”.
Where is the POLICE?! pic.twitter.com/1U4LCmdU9o
— Eli Afriat ???????????? (@EliAfriatISR) November 8, 2024
Furthermore, Dutch police said that around 1,200 officers were deployed in the city as the violence broke out, rather than the 5,000 claimed in the British police assessment.
Meijer also said he was “surprised” by other allegations, including that 200 Maccabi fans were “linked” to the Israel Defense Forces, saying that not only would the police force not had intelligence of that kind, but in any case Israel has conscription, meaning that the claim was essentially meaningless.
“Most young men in Israel have some connection to the IDF but we did not investigate it and we don’t have a number for that. Of course not. I read [the allegation]. I was really surprised,” he said.
The British police report claimed that the Israeli fans were “highly organized, skilled fighters with a serious desire and will to fight with police and opposing groups.”
“The Amsterdam police does not recognize the claim,” read the response from Dutch law enforcement.
In this image taken from video, police escort Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters to the metro in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, November 7, 2024. (AP Photo InterVision)
The Times said that West Midlands Police, responsible for the Birmingham area, refused to respond to a request for comment for a number of days, before eventually saying on Saturday that its “evaluation had public safety at its heart.”
“We met with Dutch police on October 1, where information relating to that 2024 fixture was shared with us. Informed by information and intelligence, we concluded that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters — specifically the subgroup known as the Maccabi Fanatics — posed a credible threat to public safety,” West Midlands Police told the newspaper.
When asked if they stood by the claims in the report and their supposed source, British police told the newspaper that they had worked off a “range of factors,” including Dutch law enforcement, without detailing who the meetings had been held with.
In response to the Times report, British lawmaker Nick Timothy wrote in the same newspaper that “fundamental questions must be asked.”
“First, West Midlands police did fear the eruption of serious disorder they would struggle to contain, but the threat lay largely with Islamist agitators and local thugs who hate Israel and Jews. This is given credence by the number of officers deployed — more than 700 — when the match went ahead without away supporters,” Timothy wrote.
“Second, West Midlands police felt political and social pressure from those who want to ban and boycott all things Israeli,” he charged, citing the influence of so-called “Gaza independent” lawmakers and councilors elected on a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel ticket.
Police officers secure a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstration outside Villa Park in Birmingham, central England, on November 6, 2025, ahead of the UEFA Europa League league-stage football match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv. (HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
The decision to ban Israeli fans from the game sparked criticism, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who set about trying to reverse the move, though Maccabi Tel Aviv later announced it would decline tickets for its fans anyway, citing safety concerns. A British Jewish communal organization said it was told it could not receive the Israeli-designated tickets.
Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest city and home to a significant Muslim population, has been the scene of regular pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rallies over the last two years.
Ahead of the Maccabi-Aston Villa game, signs were hung near the stadium reading “no war games allowed” and “Give Zionism the Red Card,” and “If you see a Zionist call the anti-terror hotline.”
Anti-Israel signs seen ahead of an Aston Villa – Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer game in Birmingham, UK, November 6, 2025. (Screenshots via X, via Deen1fied on Instagram)
Officials said 10 Israelis were injured in the violence in Amsterdam last year, which the victims said was perpetrated largely by local Muslims and Arabs, with hundreds more besieged in their hotels and fearing they could be attacked when trying to reach their flights home.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said at the time that the attacks on the Israeli fans were a “poisonous cocktail” of antisemitism and hooligan behavior. Halsema said that after the game, groups of men on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans in areas of the city.
There were a handful of incidents in which Maccabi fans were seen pulling down Palestinian flags and engaging in racist chants ahead of the game, and ten Israelis were arrested.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has criticized “hate-filled falsehoods” about its supporters.
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