Britain’s home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has withdrawn her confidence in the chief constable of West Midlands Police after it emerged that false, AI-generated evidence was used to justify banning Israeli football supporters from a Europa League match in Birmingham.
Speaking on Wednesday, January 14, Mahmood said that the force had acted “in an attempt to avoid long-term damage to local community relations,” calling the decision “a grossly misguided effort.” She added that the chief constable “no longer has my confidence.”
The controversy centres on the decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending a Europa League fixture against Aston Villa at Villa Park in November. The ban was justified using a report that cited a previous match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham United—an event that never took place.
West Midlands Police chief constable Craig Guildford later admitted the error in a letter to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, apologising to MPs and acknowledging that the fictitious fixture had been included in evidence submitted to Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which approved the ban.
Guildford said the mistake arose from the use of Microsoft Copilot, an artificial intelligence chatbot, rather than a standard internet search, as previously claimed.
“I would like to offer my profound apology to the committee for this error,” he wrote, adding that his belief the information had come from Google “was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the committee.”
The affair has fuelled accusations that police were quicker to accommodate pressure from predominantly Muslim communities in Birmingham than to protect Jewish supporters.
West Midlands Police also pointed to alleged disorder involving Maccabi supporters in Amsterdam as justification for the ban. That account has since been disputed by Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, who told MPs the claims were “nonsensical” and did not align with official reports.
As previously reported, between 20 and 30 people were injured in November 2024 after Israeli football fans were attacked by a pro-Palestinian mob in Amsterdam following a match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Some victims were hospitalised. Dutch authorities later confirmed the violence was pre-planned, with perpetrators intending to “hunt down Jews.”
Documents published last week also revealed that West Midlands Police had been warned in advance that residents in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham were planning to arm themselves if Maccabi supporters attended the match against Aston Villa.
Concerns have since been raised that threats directed at the Israeli team were not adequately addressed. Messages circulated among pro-Palestinian activists urged supporters to search Birmingham hotels for Maccabi players and attempt to “obstruct” the match.
Lord Austin, a Labour peer, described the messages as “further proof” of threats by “local extremists” that police had “ignored.”
