Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Maccabi Tel Aviv has announced that it will reject any proposed ticket Europa League game against Aston Villa Next month regardless of growing calls for the English city birmingham To reverse the ban on Israeli club fans.
West Midlands Police last week deemed the November 6 match at Villa Park high-risk, citing violence and hate crimes against Maccabi. Tel Aviv The previous season was played at Ajax, Amsterdam.
The subsequent ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for the Villa game was widely criticized, including from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said it was the wrong decision.
In a statement posted on social media late on Monday, Maccabi Tel Aviv acknowledged efforts to overturn the ban, but said: “The well-being and safety of our fans is paramount and with hard lessons learned, we have decided to reject any allocation offered by away fans and our decision should be understood in that context.”
Behind the scenes, the British government is trying to resolve the dispute, which comes at a time of heightened concerns about anti-Semitism in Britain following a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue earlier this month and calls for a boycott of Israeli sports by Palestinians and their supporters over the conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
football fan ban
Bans on fans traveling are not unheard of in European football, but are usually based on a history of violence between fans of rival clubs. There is no history of violence between Aston Villa and Maccabi fans.
However, Maccabi fans have increasingly been in the headlines over the past year, partly linked to the war in Gaza. Most notably, Maccabi fans clashed violently with city residents in Amsterdam last season when the team arrived for a Europa League game against Ajax.
Dozens of people were arrested and five were treated in hospital after a night of violence that authorities condemned as anti-Semitic and in which some supporters of the Israeli team were seen chanting anti-Arab slogans.
There was a heavy police presence, including snipers, on the stadium roof for last week’s World Cup qualifier between the Italian and Israeli national teams in Italy as authorities placed the game in the highest risk category.
And last Sunday, dozens of people were injured after rioting football fans threw flares and smoke grenades at a domestic league derby game in Tel Aviv. The game at Bloomfield Stadium between city rivals Hapoel and Maccabi was ultimately canceled out of concern for public safety, police said.
The November 6 clash at Villa Park will be Maccabi’s first match in the Europa League, the second tier of European football, since pro-Palestinian protests broke out at the stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece, when the club played PAOK on September 24. About 120 Maccabi fans had traveled to Greece for that game and were placed in a police cordon before entering the venue.
European football’s governing body UEFA was considering voting to suspend Israeli teams from its competitions before a ceasefire in Gaza comes into effect this month.
maccabi reaction
In a club statement, Maccabi Tel Aviv said football should bring people together, not divide them.
“We are playing a vital role in bringing forward football talent from around the world, regardless of race or creed. Our first team includes Muslim, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses ethnic and religious divides,” the statement said.
The statement said there were critics who were trying to “defame” Maccabi fans.
“We are hopeful that circumstances will change and we look forward to being able to play in a sporting environment in Birmingham in the near future,” the club said.
,
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer