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Dutch police have questioned the credibility of claims used by British officers to justify excluding Israeli fans from a football match in Birmingham in their testimony to an official inquiry.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned from the Europa League game against Aston Villa in November by a Birmingham safety committee following intelligence from West Midlands police.
The decision caused outrage and claims police were caving in to antisemitism. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, ordered the policing inspectorate to investigate the affair.
The first part of the inquiry by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has examined West Midlands police’s (WMP) handling of that intelligence. The findings are due this week and sources from senior policing, Whitehall and Birmingham’s local government expect them to be critical.
Central to the WMP case is what they were told by Dutch police as they planned for the game. The force says this intelligence led them to believe Maccabi fans had been perpetrators of violence during a match against Ajax in Amsterdam in November 2024.
But HMIC spoke to Dutch police, who told its inquiry that several key claims relied on by WMP clashed with its experience of policing Maccabi fans during that game, which was marred by violence.
The Guardian understands that Dutch police said claims such as one that Maccabi fans had thrown Muslims into an Amsterdam river were incorrect. Indeed Dutch police said the only incident remotely like that involved a Maccabi fan being found in the water.
HMIC were also told that the presence of Maccabi fans and the trouble that followed required 1,200 Dutch officers, not 5,000 as WMP had claimed.
Furthermore, the inquiry was told that Maccabi fans did not specifically target Muslim communities in Amsterdam. While there were clashes, and Maccabi hooligans did strike locals, the Israeli fans did not go hunting for people to attack, multiple sources have said.
Dutch police told HMIC that the trouble was confined to central Amsterdam, with the city’s Muslim communities living outside that area.
The Dutch police view, as told to HMIC during the meeting in December, was that the cause of trouble before the Amsterdam game was much more mixed, with Israeli fans and pro-Palestinian supporters provoking each other. But after the game it was Maccabi fans who were attacked, with anti-Israeli sentiment in the Dutch city running high because of the Gaza war.
HMIC’s findings are expected to be sent to Mahmood imminently and published this week. It will add to pressure on WMP and its chief constable, Craig Guildford, who is facing calls to resign. The home secretary does not have the legal power to directly sack a chief constable.
Ultimately the only person who can oust the chief constable is Simon Foster, who is the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands. Foster is said to be waiting for the HMIC report and to have not made up his mind. He has publicly praised Guildford for boosting the force’s crime fighting.
Guildford, the chief constable since 2022, took office with the Birmingham-based force solving 3% of crimes. That figure now stands at 15%. Violent crime is down, and times to answer emergency calls, which were among the worst in the country, are now among the best.
WMP said they based the majority of their case for excluding Maccabi fans on the behaviour of Israeli fans at the game in Amsterdam in 2024. They added that before they were briefed by three Dutch police officers on 1 October they were planning to host Maccabi’s fans’ attendance at the game in Birmingham. However, they were so alarmed by what they were told they raised their assessment about the dangers posed.
The report from HMIC will also be studied by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which will consider if any officers may have committed misconduct under the police discipline codes.
Furthermore, the home affairs committee will produce its own report, which is expected to be critical of the police. It will also consider claims that the WMP decision was caving to “Islamists” and whether the force made a political decision to ban the Israeli fans – allegations it rejects.
The ban on Maccabi fans was made by Birmingham’s safety advisory group. News of its decision emerged shortly after a terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue left two dead and as concerns about antisemitism were running high.
Keir Starmer criticised the ban, and a second HMIC inquiry will examine how safety advisory groups work. The game was played with Maccabi fans absent after the Tel Aviv club decided to decline its ticket allocation.
WMP and Dutch police have been approached for comment.
