The ban on travelling fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv football club from next month’s Europa League match with Aston Villa was imposed thanks to “intelligence on ‘extreme’ Maccabi fans with [a] history of violence,” according to a report in The Guardian on Tuesday. This points in particular to trouble “instigated by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans” in Amsterdam last year.
Indeed, a June 2025 summary of these events by the Dutch Justice and Security Inspectorate noted that “the violence reached a low point during the night of November 7th to 8th, when people of Jewish background, or who were perceived to be of Jewish background, were publicly targeted with threats, intimidation and beatings.”
Commentator Josh Howie also highlighted that the “real story” the Guardian has missed is that a former Hezbollah fighter was behind a report on the violence in Amsterdam that helped influence the ban in Birmingham.
Well @guardian have really outdone themselves, as their transformation into an anti-truth Jew-hating organisation reaches a new level.
The real story here, as exposed 4 days ago in the Mail, is how West Midlands Police utilised information supplied by a proper Islamist terrorist… pic.twitter.com/JketPVhhC8
The recent ban was made all the more murky when Tommy Robinson, best known for being the English Defence League (EDL) founder in 2009, joined in with the criticism online and asked his followers: “Who’s coming to support Maccabi Tel Aviv at Villa Park on November 6th?”
After this, a Maccabi Tel Aviv club source toldJewish News:
There was now also danger that our supporters could be falsely associated with his far-right activities, in front of anti-Israel protestors already out to get them.
With Robinson’s supporters potentially posing as Maccabi fans on the streets of Birmingham, we concluded that the risk had become unacceptable for innocent fans who just want to watch their team play.
europeanconservative.com columnist Lauren Smith wrote on this saga on Monday that the ban actually served as “a depressing admission that the police do not have the power to keep Jews safe in Britain’s second city, where the population is around 30% Muslim.” This, Smith added, has forced Britons “to have a discussion about the fact that parts of the country have effectively been turned into no-go zones for Jewish people.”
It is also worth noting, then, that news anti-Israeli protesters will be turning up to the match—even though fans will not—prompted another security source to tellJewish News “that this was never really about influx of Maccabi fans in the first place within the ranks of the Islamist activists.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
