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British officials said Friday they are working to lift a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans Europa League game in aston villa The following month due to security concerns, a decision that was condemned by politicians, sports organizations and Jewish groups.
Prime Minister keir starmer The police recommendation to bar the visiting team’s fans from the 6 November game was a “bad decision”, and European football’s governing body said, uefaurged the British authorities to ensure that fans of the Israeli team could go to watch matches.
“UEFA wants fans to be able to travel and support their teams in a safe, secure and welcoming environment, and encourages both teams and the competent authorities to agree on the implementation of the appropriate measures necessary to do so,” it said in a statement.
Ian Murray, Minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, said the government would “make every effort to resolve this issue.” He said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy “We will be meeting today with the Home Office and other stakeholders to try to see if there is a way through this.”
Aston Villa said in a statement that police had informed the club that “they have public safety concerns outside the Stadium Bowl and are able to deal with any potential protests on the night.”
West Midlands Police said it had considered the match at Villa Park in Birmingham, central England, to be high risk “based on existing intelligence and past incidents”, including violence and hate crimes when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax in Amsterdam last season.
The fan ban was sharply criticized by Starmer, who said, “The role of the police is to ensure that all football fans can enjoy the game without fear of violence or intimidation.”
The match at Villa Park will be Maccabi Tel Aviv’s first match in the Europa League since pro-Palestinian protests broke out at the stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece, when the club played PAOK on September 24.
About 120 fans of the Israeli club traveled to Greece for that game and were put through a police cordon before entering the venue.
Last season, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans clashed violently with city residents in Amsterdam when the team arrived for a Europa League game against Ajax.
UEFA was considering a vote to suspend Israeli teams from its competitions before a ceasefire in Gaza broke this month.
Maccabi Tel Aviv chief executive Jack Angelides expressed “disappointment at what this potentially signals.”
“I don’t use this term lightly but people ask, ‘What does anti-Semitism look like?’ And it often unfolds as part of a process…in other words smaller incidents lead to something that is more catastrophic,” he told the BBC.