West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guilford came under fire during a Home Affairs Committee on Monday regarding the police's decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending an away match against Aston Villa on November 6.
During the hearing, and according to reports in recent weeks, it transpired that some of the intelligence in the police's report was bogus. This included dramatically incorrect statements, such as Maccabi Tel Aviv's last match in the UK being against West Ham, which never happened.
Additionally, on November 22, Dutch law enforcement told the Sunday Times that the British police force used false intelligence to secure the ban. The claims in the West Midlands police intelligence report included that, during a match between Tel Aviv and Ajax in Amsterdam in 2024, Maccabi fans threw “innocent members of the public into the river”, that between 500 and 600 “intentionally targeted Muslim communities,” and that 5,000 police officers were deployed in response.
Sebastian Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division, told the Times that he did not recognize the West Midlands' police finding that the Israelis were “highly organised, skilled fighters with a serious desire and will to fight with police and opposing groups”, and that in the only known case of a man thrown in the river, the...
During the hearing, and according to reports in recent weeks, it transpired that some of the intelligence in the police's report included dramatically incorrect statements. West Midlands Police Chi...