A group of parliamentarians, past and present—including former attorney Sir Michael Ellis—has written to the chief constable of West Midlands Police to express “deep concern about the propriety and processes surrounding the ban.”
While the letter itself has no statutory force, Craig Guildford, the chief constable in question, will need to account for local decision-making in the run-up to the “bizarre” and “draconian” ban.
In football terms, it was unusual that pressure to exclude Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was coming from Muslim elements in the city council. Normally such ‘risk assessment’ is carried out by the game’s governing bodies, such as UEFA.
