Mick Hartley

The JC, on the Birmingham ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

West Midlands Police (WMP) are facing calls for an independent probe after a dossier seen by the JC shows strong evidence that claims of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans hooliganism were wildly exaggerated to justify their ban.

The force cited claims that up to 600 of the club’s supporters committed “hate-motivated crimes” in Amsterdam last year, it is understood.

Yet on the night of the Ajax match Israeli fans were assaulted in large numbers on the city’s streets, in what was later revealed to be a planned and organised “Jew hunt”.

The official report by the Amsterdam authorities obtained by the JC says Maccabi fans “do not have a violent reputation”, and makes clear it was the Israeli club’s supporters who were the victims of “groups that are looking for a confrontation”.

The document also stated that of the 59 suspects arrested, only ten were Israeli while the others were from the Netherlands.

Both Labour and Conservative politicians are urgently demanding transparency from WMP over why they stopped the Israeli club’s supporters from attending the match against Aston Villa two weeks ago.…

The findings by the prosecutor and police in Amsterdam contradict statements by senior WMP officers to justify the ban, which was condemned at the time by the prime minister and home secretary as well as leading Jewish groups.

The force have admitted they failed to engage adequately with the local Jewish community, the JC can also reveal.

Labour peer and former Birmingham MP Lord McCabe told the JC: “These contradictory reports demand swift and open clarification from West Midlands Police.

“The handling of the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture has been an unedifying saga from start to finish.”

The WMP, it’s clear enough, were intimidated into the ban by the threats from Islamist-hard left groups. To save face – to admit that they weren’t in control of the streets – they blamed the Jews. As always.

The JC Leader:

There can be little doubt of what is the new reality: in the second city of the United Kingdom, it is extremists who are effectively making public order decisions.

We have seen the results. When a JC reporter visited Villa Park on the night that Maccabi Tel Aviv played without their fans to cheer them on, he was confronted outside the stadium by a hooded gang, one of whose members exclaimed: “F**k Israel. F**k every Jew.”