TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Maccabi Tel Aviv has announced it will decline any tickets offered for a Europa League game against Aston Villa next month regardless of growing calls for the English city of Birmingham to reverse a ban it imposed on the Israeli club's fans.
West Midlands Police last week deemed the Nov. 6 match at Villa Park to be high risk and cited violence and hate crimes that took place when Maccabi Tel Aviv played at Ajax in Amsterdam
last season.
The ban subsequently imposed on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for the Villa game attracted widespread criticism, including from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said it was the wrong decision.
In a statement posted on social media late Monday, Maccabi Tel Aviv acknowledged the efforts to overturn the ban but added: “The wellbeing and safety of our fans is paramount and from hard lessons learned, we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context.”
Behind the scenes, the British government has been seeking to resolve the row, which comes at a time of heightened worries about antisemitism in Britain following a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue earlier this month and calls from Palestinians and their supporters for a sports boycott of Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Bans for traveling fans are not unheard of in European soccer, but are typically based on a history of violence between fans of rival clubs. There is no history of violence between Aston Villa and Maccabi fans.
However, Maccabi fans have been increasingly in the spotlight over the past year or so, partly linked to the war in Gaza. Most notably, Maccabi fans clashed violently with city residents in Amsterdam last season when the team visited for a Europa League game against Ajax.
Dozens were arrested and five people were treated in a hospital following the night of violence which was condemned as antisemitic by authorities and which also saw some supporters of the Israeli team chanting anti-Arab slogans.
In Italy last week there was a heavy police presence, including snipers on the roof of the stadium, for a World Cup qualifier between Italian and Israeli national teams after authorities placed the game in the highest risk category.
And last Sunday, dozens of people were injured after rioting soccer fans at a domestic league derby game in Tel Aviv threw flares and smoke grenades. The game at the Bloomfield Stadium between city rivals Hapoel and Maccabi was eventually abandoned out of concern for public safety, police said.
The Nov. 6 encounter at Villa Park is set to be Maccabi’s first away match in the Europa League, European soccer’s second-tier competition, since pro-Palestinian protests took place at the stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece, when the club played PAOK on Sept. 24. About 120 Maccabi fans traveled to Greece for that game and were held behind a police cordon before entering the venue.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA was weighing a vote to suspend Israeli teams from its competitions before that was overtaken this month by the ceasefire in Gaza.
In the club statement, Maccabi Tel Aviv said soccer should bring people together, not divide them.
“We have been instrumental in bringing forward footballing talent from around the world irrespective of race or creed. Our first team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide,” the statement said, adding that the club had been “working tirelessly to stamp out racism within the more extreme elements of our fan base."
The statement said there were critics who sought to “malign" Maccabi fans.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future," the club said.
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