Pressure mounts on West Midlands Police Chief amid scrutiny over Israeli football fans ban at Aston Villa match
Pressure is mounting on a police chief facing scrutiny over a controversial decision to ban fans of an Israeli football team from attending a match in Birmingham.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for West Midlands Police (WMP) chief constable Craig Guildford to be sacked after he was grilled by a cross-party group of MPs for a second time over the move.
On Wednesday Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also suggested the chief constable “needs to go”, while Israeli representatives said they were “deeply concerned” by emerging evidence which needed “full accountability”.
Force leaders defended their position at the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday after being recalled to give further evidence over the decision to ban supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a Europa League match against Aston Villa on November 6.
Fans were barred from travelling to the game at Villa Park by the local Safety Advisory Group (Sag), which cited safety concerns based on advice from the police force.
The decision by the Sag – which is made up of representatives from the council, police and other authorities – sparked political outrage, including from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Since then, doubts have been growing over the intelligence used by police, including disputes over the accuracy of information.
On Tuesday Mr Guildford insisted the ban was not politically influenced.
The committee heard West Midlands Police thought “vigilante groups” from the local community posed a threat to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans when it decided to ban them from the game.
The force had information from as early as September 5 last year that the Israeli visitors would be targeted with “violence”, MPs were told.
Assistant chief constable Mike O’Hara said: “We got a lot of information intelligence to suggest that people were going to actively seek out Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and would seek violence towards them.
“So we had sort of like a bubbling position locally.
“We had people purporting to be Maccabi fans online who were goading local community members and saying, ‘this is what you’re going to get’.
“This was all forming part of the heat of the situation, so based on that, the commanders tried to make the right decision.”
The fixture had been classified high risk by WMP, with the force pointing to alleged violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam.
However, Dutch police have disputed the accuracy of this information, the Sunday Times reported.
Mr Guildford defended claims put to him by committee chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley that it feels like the force was “scraping” to find a reason to justify the ban.
A statement from the Israeli embassy to the UK said the newly disclosed assessments show the primary threat to public safety was not from the fans themselves but from “organised radical Islamist groups who were actively preparing and arming themselves with the intention of harming Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters”.
It said the portrayal of Israeli fans as violent was a “gross mischaracterisation” and instead placed blame on the community that was facing the threat.
“The decision to obscure these assessments, and to allow a misleading narrative to take hold, raises serious questions,” the statement said.
“These acts by law enforcement institutions undermine real security risks, and even encourages a climate in which hostility towards Israeli and Jewish communities can be normalised under the rule of law.
“These matters require full accountability.”
On Wednesday, Mr Farage suggested the chief constable “needs to go”.
He said: “It was monstrous that the impression was given that the Jewish Israeli fans would be violent when the truth is there were serious threats of violence against them and huge degrees of misinformation fed in by local elected politicians in the West Midlands, with the assistance of one or two mosques who do not have good reputations.
“And I thought the performance yesterday in front of the Commons committee was absolutely abject, so he needs to go first.”
Meanwhile, West Midlands police and crime commissioner Simon Foster has said he will formally review evidence on decision-making around the ban following the significant interest.
He added: “I have also requested a report to my public accountability and governance board on Tuesday January 27 2026, at which I will hold the chief constable and West Midlands Police to account.
“I will continue to keep this matter under review, in accordance with due process and the law at all times.”
West Midlands Police has been contacted for comment.
