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Maccabi Tel Aviv football club banned

(616 Posts)
AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 09:23:24

Aston Villa have banned the fans from Tel Aviv from attending the game. They say that after the violence in Amsterdam when the Jewish club was there that they don't feel they can provide the level of security needed to keep fans and nearby residents safe.
There have been clashes in Norway and Italy when Israel compete.
Aston Villa say it is not antisemitism but just being safety conscious.
Maybe another way could have been found without the ban?

Oreo Fri 17-Oct-25 12:05:50

All football fans aren’t violent or destructive but there is a core element in every club in the world.That shouldn’t mean they aren’t welcome to travel.

Oreo Fri 17-Oct-25 12:01:59

Maremia

The policing needed in London is often for wee old folk sitting quietly on pavements with placards.
Not young aggressive football fans, who have already shown how they can act when abroad.

Ah yes, the wee old folk🤬

AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 11:59:45

Oreo of course this can be policed but it means many more police being taken away from other crime in the city. They know that there is likely to be violence and people will be hurt.

The only other way to do this is to keep the Maccabi fans in one area. I think this is done anyway. They can control things better inside the stadium. After the match police could escort Maccabi to buses located nearby and get them far away as soon as possible.
This has been successfully done before where there was likely to be violence.

Galaxy Fri 17-Oct-25 11:57:21

The irony.
I cannot move for people saying the British flags should be removed from our streets.
Starmer and the police commissioner have clearly said this was the wrong decision.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 11:55:12

The policing needed in London is often for wee old folk sitting quietly on pavements with placards.
Not young aggressive football fans, who have already shown how they can act when abroad.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 11:52:25

Why should visitors feel they have a tight to pull down another person's flag?

AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 11:51:50

People support Palestine all over the world so the flag may have been there for some time. If Maccabi fans behave like this in someone else's country then it will incite violence.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 11:51:05

You have to look very closely at everything those Maccabi fans while abroad. They caused disturbances in a host city.
Would they do the same in England?
I still say ban the troublemakerls. I have been saying that right from the top of the Thread.
Don't make excuses for them. Their behaviour was appalling. All football thuggery is appalling.
Another Poster said play with no fans attending.
That is probably an easier solution.
Why should the hosts and the Police and local fans have to worry about the same happening here.?

Allira Fri 17-Oct-25 11:47:38

AGAA4

It looks as though the Maccabi fans aren't above causing trouble. Burning the Palestinian flag is incitement to violence. They were in another country and should behave better.
I can't condone violence of any kind.
It was a stupid thing to do when they were vastly outnumbered.

Why was a Palestinian flag flying in Amsterdam anyway?

Allira Fri 17-Oct-25 11:46:26

Oreo

It’s a mixture of antisemitism and safety concerns as the police don’t want to have to police huge numbers of Birmingham residents going there to cause trouble and attacking Jewish fans.
If we can’t police this then we may as well give up.

Yes.

It is giving in to those who will cause trouble because they are anti-semitic.
I thought the UK was better than that.

If we can’t police this then we may as well give up.
Yes, again, but how sad that this is happening at sporting events.

Whatever happened to sport?

AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 11:45:03

It looks as though the Maccabi fans aren't above causing trouble. Burning the Palestinian flag is incitement to violence. They were in another country and should behave better.
I can't condone violence of any kind.
It was a stupid thing to do when they were vastly outnumbered.

Oreo Fri 17-Oct-25 11:38:55

We can police it of course if the will is there.Look at the policing needed in London every week.

Oreo Fri 17-Oct-25 11:37:20

It’s a mixture of antisemitism and safety concerns as the police don’t want to have to police huge numbers of Birmingham residents going there to cause trouble and attacking Jewish fans.
If we can’t police this then we may as well give up.

Oreo Fri 17-Oct-25 11:33:55

You know all about the trouble in Amsterdam * Maremia* so why question it.
The Tel Aviv fans did tear down the Palestinian flag and burned it.Imagine if a visiting team from the West Bank had gone there and been faced with the flag of Israel! Poor policing and security to not have taken down any flags beforehand.
That one incident seems to have crazed Ajax fans and a few residents and they did go after any Israeli fans like animals, chasing them down and attacking them. Some of the Tel Aviv fans were with young family members.It was shocking.

Babs03 Fri 17-Oct-25 11:32:52

Looks like Ajax were also banned after the disturbances in Amsterdam -

sports.yahoo.com/article/french-govt-ban-ajax-fans-090503088.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAB3y-M7e3eLo-vokEDyjWl6EDl88D2tZBTuFXLwWhW8p78BCDCn-OVq2e74EZY23AThfXPBn-4JiplPEBxPxqlKygZ0n2W76h10P9muvwIWBhsr4FNckzZoksAA2zpRnn_RS1o6IqP-rgN2HKi8XT-AGp6Gun-yAW308zXZw_6px -

So, is it antisemitism or just even handed concerns over fan safety?
I also agree that this should be a closed match without any fans allowed to attend in order not to cause offence.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 11:13:12

And that those Ajax fans who were involved in the disturbances, are not the ones who might cause trouble around this particular match.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 11:01:01

My objection Rosie was to the Ajax fans being singled out as, what was it 'animals'?

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 10:57:59

As I said above, the trouble was not only in the Stadium.
A police report from that time describes how 'the first incidents were reported on Wednesday evening, the day before the match. Police say Maccabi fans tore a Palestinian flag down from the facade of a building and burned it, shouted ' f... you Palestine', and vandalised a taxi'.
This report is from The Guardian.
The Club could make an attempt to ban such fans from travelling. England fans have been from games in Europe.

AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 10:42:15

When my DH was a young constable he used to police matches on his days off sometimes. Any trouble in the crowd would be dealt with quickly but he said it's when they get outside that the problems are worse.
His cousin was stabbed in a huge crowd leaving the match at one time and the crowd was too dense to see who the thug was. He was quite a way from the stadium when it happened .

Rosie51 Fri 17-Oct-25 10:37:52

Maremia

Ajax is not playing in the UK, Oreo. Why are they relevant in this Thread?

Maybe because trouble between the teams' fans in Amsterdam is being cited as a reason for this antisemitism?

And now having read your second comment you do know why Ajax are being mentioned.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 10:27:24

Not all of the agro occurred within the Stadium.

Maremia Fri 17-Oct-25 10:25:55

Ajax is not playing in the UK, Oreo. Why are they relevant in this Thread?

AGAA4 Fri 17-Oct-25 10:21:56

Yes of course and people would be injured as well as policemen. I think in Amsterdam four people have been jailed since the attack on the Jewish fans.
I can understand why nobody wants this to happen but banning Maccabi seems too one sided and very unfair.

I don't know what the answer is as I'm fairly sure there will be trouble if the Jewish fans attend. There are a lot of morons out there.

Galaxy Fri 17-Oct-25 10:21:24

I strangely enough don't want to live in a country where jewish people aren't permitted to watch a football game, call me old fashioned like that. At least Starmer has said it is the wrong decision.

ronib Fri 17-Oct-25 10:11:43

Then the police would step in ?AGAA4