LONDON – On Wednesday, the U.K.’s home secretary called for the resignation of the leader of a major police force, following revelations in a report regarding the exclusion of Israeli soccer fans from a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Premier League team Aston Villa in Birmingham last year.
Shabana Mahmood addressed lawmakers, highlighting the “devastating” conclusions of an independent review into West Midlands Police’s actions on November 6. The report criticized the police for exaggerating the perceived threat from Maccabi supporters while downplaying the risks those fans faced when traveling to the game.
“The chief constable holds ultimate responsibility for the force’s failure to adequately manage this issue of national significance. Consequently, I must assert that I no longer have confidence in the leadership of the chief constable of West Midlands Police,” Mahmood stated.
The prohibition against Maccabi fans sparked significant backlash at the time, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer among those voicing disapproval.
West Midlands Police justified the restriction by classifying the match as high risk due to “current intelligence and previous incidents,” pointing to incidents of violence and hate crimes during Maccabi’s previous encounter with Ajax in Amsterdam.
The ban was announced amid heightened concerns about antisemitism in the U.K., following a violent attack on a Manchester synagogue and calls from Palestinian supporters for a sports boycott of Israel, in light of the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Mahmood said the report by the chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, found that West Midlands Police “conducted little engagement with the Jewish community and none with the Jewish community in Birmingham before a decision was taken.”
She said the report characterized the police’s approach as “confirmation bias” and “rather than follow the evidence, the force sought only the evidence to support their desired position to ban the fans.” The report did not find the police force was antisemitic.
Mahmood said she didn’t have the power to fire Chief Constable Craig Guildford herself for his “failure of leadership” as a result of a policy change by the previous Conservative government in 2011, but she was looking to reinstate that power to home secretaries. Currently, locally elected police and crime commissioners have that power.
Guildford did not immediately comment on the report Wednesday.
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