Leaked audio reveals police claimed locals planned to ‘arm themselves’ in self-defence ahead of Maccabi game
West Midlands superintendent told meeting with Birmingham Jewish community Maccabi Tel Aviv fans planned to cause 'carnage' in city
A senior West Midlands police officer was recorded last October telling a private meeting that some Birmingham residents were planning to “arm themselves” in self-defence ahead of a visit from Israeli football fans, “out of fear for what might happen.”
Arguing for a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending last year’s match against Aston Villa, leaked audio from the meeting—now obtained by Jewish News—reveals Superintendent Jack Hadley depicting Maccabi fans as likely to cause “carnage” in the city, potentially damaging community relations for years.
Hadley’s suggestion that residents in predominantly Muslim areas near Villa Park were preparing to arm themselves defensively in anticipation of Israeli fans’ actions raises fresh concerns about the conduct of West Midlands Police regarding the match.
Earlier this month, West Midlands Police chiefs faced criticism at a Home Affairs Select Committee hearing for failing to disclose intelligence about local Muslims allegedly planning to “arm themselves” before the game.
Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara later told MPs, “There was a lot of intelligence that people would actively seek out Maccabi fans and seek violence towards them.”
Yet the leaked recording shows that in October, Superintendent Hadley did not disclose that the real threat was towards Israeli fans.
Speaking to a packed meeting of Birmingham’s Jewish community, Hadley said:“Today is about being transparent and sharing what we have got. I will give you some specific lines of information.
“We have got ears in all our different community groups, and this is what we are being told.”
He added that residents were worried about home and away fans gathering around the stadium, saying“We do have specific information about residents wanting to ‘arm themselves’—that was the phrase we were told—because they are in fear of what might happen in their local streets.”
The recording also reveals Hadley making further controversial claims, referencing violent incidents at the Ajax v Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam in November 2024.
Despite evidence suggesting local Muslim youths in Amsterdam targeted Jews, Hadley told the meeting: “Muslim protesters turned up on the second day. There were no attacks on the wider Jewish communities within Amsterdam. It was all targeted on that football fan behaviour that they witnessed (from Maccabi Tel Aviv fans), obviously.”
But this ignored clear evidence and reports, including by the BBC, of some on social media calling for a “Jew hunt”, while the Amsterdam mayor warned of “antisemitic hit-and-run squads”.
Reports later told how the Amsterdam fixture led to two nights of violence after provocations by Maccabi ultras, including the pulling of Palestine flags from buildings, anti-Arab chants and attacking taxis.
In turn, cab drivers, many of Arab descent, put out calls to mobilise against the Israeli supporters.
They were joined by locals on foot and mounted on scooters.
The Dutch government said fans were then indiscriminately ambushed and assaulted, with targeted attacks on people of Jewish background or perceived as such.
Seven people, five of them Israeli, were treated in hospital.
The public prosecutor said 62 arrests took place — reportedly ten Israelis; the remainder Dutch — and five people were treated in hospital with serious injuries.
Five local men have been convicted of violence, theft and assault.
Constable Mark Roberts, National Lead for Football Policing, UK Football Policing Unit, Mike O’Hara, Assistant Chief Constable, West Midlands Police, Craig Guildford, Chief Constable, West Midlands Police and Mick Wilkinson, Chief Inspector, West Midlands Police appearing before the Home Affairs Committee, for a hearing on Football Policing, at the House of Commons, London. Picture date: Tuesday January 6, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire
At the meet last October Hadley also cited the previous day’s abandoned Israeli Premier League match between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv as evidence for banning fans from travelling to Birmingham.
He told the meeting, which took place just after the Tel Aviv derby was called off, “Obviously, the issues yesterday with the match being abandoned in Israel and the Israeli authorities using the phrase ‘rioting’… They describe a threat to life, and that’s why they abandon the match. That’s what I don’t want to come to Birmingham. That’s what was my biggest concern.”
However, it later emerged that the derby was cancelled after “dozens of smoke grenades and pyrotechnic devices were thrown”—not by Maccabi fans, but by rival Hapoel supporters.
Central to Hadley’s argument was now-discredited intelligence allegedly received from Dutch police.
At the October meeting, chaired by Birmingham Jewish community leader Ruth Jacobs, Hadley and another senior officer, “Tim,” warned the audience that some information might “sound provocative” but was “100 percent honest.”
A month later, Dutch police publicly denied the British claims after the intelligence was leaked to the Sunday Times, calling it “not true” and, in some cases, “obviously inaccurate.”
Last Wednesday, an interim police inspectorate report concluded that “confirmation bias” had shaped West Midlands Police’s recommendation to ban away fans.
Pic: House of Commons/PA Wire
This led Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to declare she no longer had confidence in Chief Inspector Craig Guildford, after the review found “exaggerated and untrue” evidence was used to justify the ban.
Despite this, Hadley insisted to the community meeting that West Midlands Police had sought the truth about Maccabi fans, not just social media rumours.
He noted his experience commanding an earlier Villa game against Legia Warsaw, which saw serious violence, and said of the Maccabi match, “The potential for this event is carnage, and that’s the last thing we want, and that’s the basis of what we’re trying to achieve.”
Highlighting the (now discredited) meeting with Dutch police, Hadley said, “We met with their gold commander, their tactical commander, and their commanders on the ground… and spent a good few hours with them, understanding what actually happened on that day.”
“So what did they tell us?, added Hadley. “They said before the fixture, 500 to 600 Maccabi fans were drinking in the city centre..
“They drank to excess, and they en masse, intentionally, to a known Muslim community.
“Whilst they were there, they conducted themselves in an awful, awful way.”
He alleged they dragged taxi drivers from vehicles, targeted Muslim drivers, ripped down and burned Palestinian flags, sang offensive songs, threw people into the river, and attacked civilians.
According to Hadley, Dutch police described the violence as unlike anything previously seen, calling it “regimented violence” and “phenomenal” in its coordination.
He further claimed that, following the Amsterdam incidents, Muslim communities across the Netherlands converged on the city, leading to violent confrontations and requiring the deployment of over 2,000 officers.
Hadley said Dutch police described Maccabi fans as “strong, organised,” and “not afraid to fight” and suggested the Israeli government sent planes to repatriate supporters after the incident.
“Innocent members of the public walking down the road were just thrown into the river, and they were targeting civilians, not other fans, just anybody they came across,” he said.
” So the Dutch police, as you would expect, responded to that and ended up in some of the worst fighting they have ever seen.
“The Dutch police are well used to dealing with football risk groups … they regularly have teams from Eastern Europe and team fan bases that have a reputation for violence.
“The Dutch police have said the violence they saw that night was like nothing they had ever seen before.
“They’ve said that the coordination in the organisation, they were literally operating in small groups, which clearly had an aim, and they said the way they were coordinated was phenomenal, and this was unique. They’ve never seen that level of violence before
Hadley repeated that, according to Dutch police, there were no attacks on the wider Jewish community in Amsterdam, only on football fans, and said the Dutch authorities remained “scarred” and “traumatised” by the events.
He expressed “sleepless nights” over the risk of similar violence in Birmingham, warning that the damage to community relations in Amsterdam could take years to repair: “It’s not one night that I’m worried about. It’s the long-term effect on this city and its residents that causes me sleepless nights.”
In further claims, many of which have subsequently been disputed or denied, Hadley said on the following day, “because of what happened in Amsterdam” there was a mobilisation of the Muslim communities, “particularly youth elements of that community, who then came from across Amsterdam, across the Netherlands, into Amsterdam, where that resulted in violent confrontations all day long between Muslim groups and Maccabi.”
“They saw horrific crimes happen from both sides,” he added, “where they saw hit and runs, cars driven into crowds… people being assaulted on both sides, running street battles all across Amsterdam, which resulted in them trying to deploy over 2000 police officers to deal with it.”
Hadley further told the meeting that Dutch police “said how strong they were, how organised they were.
“They used the word regimented violence, and it was almost impressive – what a perverse term to use.
“But they said that level of coordination that they saw from the Maccabi fans on that day was absolutely … they said you could see experienced fighters amongst the groups, and this is why this is different from anything that we have seen.
“They were not afraid to fight with the police at all, not intimidated inside, just they were happy to fight.”
In a further claim, Hadley then told the meeting, “My understanding is the Israeli government sends planes across… they were repatriated back.
“And then you had the media story that sort of followed that.
“I think interestingly, they’re ( Dutch police) saying that from the Muslim protesters that turned on the second day, there were no attacks on the wider Jewish communities within Amsterdam.
” It was all targeted on that football fan behaviour that they witnessed, obviously.
“Then there was the political storm afterwards. It made international news, and it was talked about by basically everybody. The Dutch police are clearly still scarred by the events of that day, and they were traumatised.”
Hadley also raised concerns that pro-Palestinian activists at the match could be targeted by Aston Villa fans opposed to mixing politics and football.
When an audience member suggested anti-Israel activists might exploit the game, Hadley said police did not base decisions on particular groups’ agendas.
Ultimately, the match went ahead without Maccabi fans and without major incidents. Hadley said concerns about potential violence had been raised by multiple Birmingham communities.
Last November, the Sunday Times told how many of the claims cited by West Midlands Police in their evidence were incorrect.
Sebastiaan Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division, said “Amsterdam police does not recognise the claim” that the Israeli fans were “highly organised, skilled fighters with a serious desire and will to fight with police and opposing groups.”
He said there was no evidence 600 people “deliberately” targeted Muslims, saying the force did not have “a number of how many actually partook in the disorder”.
On people being thrown into the river, Meijer said the only known case related to a man who appeared to be a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. He was filmed being told he could leave the water on the condition he said “Free Palestine”.
Asked to comment on why they had used discreditted evidence a West Midlands police spokesperson said its “evaluation had public safety at its heart … We met with Dutch police on October 1, where information relating to that 2024 fixture was shared with us. Informed by information and intelligence, we concluded that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters — specifically the subgroup known as the Maccabi Fanatics — posed a credible threat to public safety.”
Asked if it stood by the disputed claims in the report, and for their source, it said its findings were based on a “range of factors” including Dutch police.
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