Aston Villa Europa League fixture at risk ahead of key Uefa vote
Villa’s Europa League tie against Maccabi Tel Aviv is at risk with Uefa expected to decide next week whether to suspend Israel from competition.
Maccabi are scheduled to visit Villa Park for a league phase fixture on November 6 but there is an increasing chance the match will not take place.
Calls for Israel to be banned from football and other international sport have become louder after a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
A report in The Times claims Uefa will hold an emergency executive committee next week to vote on the issue, with a large number of its members and federations in favour of suspension.
Villa’s fixture with Tel Aviv has already been the cause of controversy, with some supporters planning to hold a demonstration ahead of Thursday’s opening league phase game against Bologna voicing their opposition to the match being played.
Earlier this month, local MP Ayoub Khan urged Villa not to host the game, a call backed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Uefa now appear likely to take the matter out of everyone’s hands, should the executive committee vote in favour of a ban.
Maccabi began their Europa League campaign with a 0-0 draw away to PAOK on Wednesday, a match which saw protests by home supporters.
Should they now be expelled, Villa would play only seven matches in the league phase.
They would then be awarded points at the end of the league phase, calculated on the average results of all teams in their pot in last month’s draw (pot one) against teams in Maccabi’s (pot two) in home matches.
