The decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from Villa Park next month “chooses exclusion” of Jewish people, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said.
The local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) opted last week to block visiting fans from attending the Europa League tie against Aston Villa on November 6 following a risk assessment by West Midlands Police, a decision which drew immediate criticism from politicians including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
In response to an urgent question in the House of Commons from former Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston on Monday, Nandy said the final call on whether to admit Maccabi fans must ultimately be made by the police.
However, she said the country “should be appalled” that the initial risk assessment was, she claimed, “based in no small part on the risk posed to those fans that are attending who support Maccabi because they are Israeli, and because they are Jewish”.
She added: “The solution that is proposed, to exclude a group from attending, is wrong. It chooses exclusion rather than looking at the full options available to manage that risk.
“This is about who we are as a country.”
Nandy said people were free to protest peacefully against Israel’s attacks on Gaza but said: “They are not entitled to dictate who can participate in competitions, attend a football match, or walk the streets for fear of threats or reprisals, whatever your view on the events overseas, this is a fundamental principle that this Government will fiercely defend.”
She added: “It is not for the Government to assess the risks surrounding this football match, but we are clear that resources will not be the determining factor in whether Maccabi fans can be admitted, and that this fundamental principle that nobody in our country will be excluded from participating in public life because of who they are must be upheld.”
West Midlands Police last week classified the fixture as “high risk”. They said the decision was “based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam”.
Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said there had been “a deliberate disingenuous move by many to make this a matter of banning Jews, to conflate matters of policing with those of religion”.
He added: “Those who are not welcome in Aston are hooligans that have a long history of violence and vile racism.”
Nandy replied: “In relation to the specific incidents and chants that he mentions, I am appalled by those, and none of us in this house should seek to condone that in any sense.
“But can I say to him as well that it is entirely disingenuous to say that you respect cohesion and inclusion when you’re seeking to divide and exclude.”
Nandy agreed there were “a minority” of Maccabi fans “whose behaviour is reprehensible” but added: “That is not the case for all fans. What is astonishing in this case is that it is unprecedented in modern times that all away fans have been banned because of the behaviour of a small minority.”
The Fare network, which reports on discrimination for UEFA, said in a statement to the PA news agency on Friday that it was “reluctant to question” the police assessment and added Maccabi fans were “well known for their racism”.
Fare is understood to have made multiple referrals to UEFA in the last 10 years concerning discriminatory behaviour by Maccabi fans inside stadiums. Maccabi are aware of Fare’s comments but are yet to respond to them.
It emerged on Monday that the UK Football Policing Unit are speaking to the Israeli authorities to understand what role, if any, Maccabi supporters played in disturbances which led to the cancellation of the Tel Aviv derby on Sunday.
Maccabi insist their fans were not involved in the unrest.
