Police knew of local community plan to ‘arm themselves’ for Maccabi Tel Aviv game, MPs are told

West Midlands Police chiefs have infuriated a parliamentary committee by failing to disclose to MPs that intelligence gained in September last year showed that “elements” of the local community in the region wanted to “arm themselves” and target visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.

After being recalled to face questions from the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, police chiefs were asked why they had not previously revealed that fear of attacks on Israeli fans had influenced the decision to ban Maccabi fans from the Europa League game against Aston Villa last November.

Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara said: “We got a lot of information, intelligence to suggest that people were going to actively seek out Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and would seek violence towards them.

“So we had sort of like a bubbling position locally.”

Minutes and documents, previously denied a public airing, were published under Freedom of Information and via MPs in the past few days.

Among them was a rapid review of the West Midlands force’s recommendation by another force’s chief constable.

It confirmed that from as early as September, 5 police had picked up intelligence that “elements of the community in the West Midlands (were) wanting to ‘arm’ themselves” in connection to the match.

By September 18, they had ‘high confidence intelligence regarding a serious threat’. Neither threat is detailed in the publicly released documents.

As police were grilled again by MPs, “vigilante groups” from the local community posed a threat to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans when it decided to ban them from an away game at Aston Villa in Birmingham, the committee was told.

In a reply that failed to impress the committee Chief Constable Craig Guildford said his force had “tried to get across” the threat posed to Israeli fans from vigilantes in the local community in previous remarks.

As confirmation that the information had not previously been disclosed, MPs on the committee were heard to mutter “outrageous” and chair Karen Bradley looked visibly angry.

Responding to a question from Jewish Labour MP Peter Prinsley on why the information about armed gangs had only just come to light, Guildford told MPs the reason he didn’t publicly reveal that local armed thugs were prlanning to attack Israeli fans was because he “wasn’t asked about it”.

Later, Birmingham City Council’s Labour leader John Cotton also confirmed to MPs that he had not been informed of the intelligence suggesting armed gangs were planned attacks on Israelis in the city.

Cotton said he would have responded immediately had such a matter been raised with him.

Bradley also told the committee hearing that the “important thing here is whether the Jewish community in Birmingham feel safe” and that the police are protecting them.

“We’ve learned a lot as a force in relation to our engagement with the Jewish community,” Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara told the committee.

He continued: “I think if there is a silver lining in this whole situation, it’s the fact that we are working, I think, closer and more strategically with the local Jewish community in the West Midlands.

Also during the session, the chief constable insisted there was no political interference in the decision to ban Maccabi fans.

Asked if political pressure was put onto the safety advisory group who made the decision then asked police to justify, Guildford said: “From everything I’ve read I don’t believe there was political influence on that decision.”

That included the information and the advice provided to the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and any decision-making by the it, he added.

Guildford did again admit to meeting the local MP, Ayoub Khan, known for his hostile views of Israel.

Police also denied consulting with mosques with a history of antisemitism or extremism.

Put to them that they had consulted with four or five such mosques, Assistant Chief Constable O’Hara said: “We didn’t.”

But he said there had been consultation with the Muslim and Jewish communities on October 16 and 17.

Guildford replied: “That is absolutely what we have done since day one, and we are absolutely 100 per cent committed to do.”

He also defended claims that it appears the force was “scraping” to find a reason to justify the ban on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending the match on November 6.

Bradley told the senior officer: “It feels to us, from everything we’ve seen, that there was a need that you felt, that you had to justify banning these fans, and that scraping was done to find a reason.”

Guildford replied: “I’m really sorry if it comes across in that way. That was absolutely not the case.

“The information, the intelligence that we received, that we documented, and we’ve shared absolutely all of that with HMICFRS (His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services) very, very recently was all gone through.”

He added a mistake that was made with regard to intelligence about West Ham United that was from “one individual doing one Google search because he couldn’t find the reference, because it wasn’t there within the system”.

O’Hara added that open source research is “not unusual” in police intelligence-gathering.

Meanwhile, the head of West Midlands Police said he stands by the accuracy of intelligence which led to fans of an Israeli football team being banned from an away game at Aston Villa, even after Dutch police claimed the decision was based on false information.

Guildford told the committee he did not doubt the “integrity” of his officers.

The force pointed to violent clashes and hate crime offences during the 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv as part of its justification.

Asked by MPs if the number of Dutch police officers deployed to the fixture in Amsterdam had been “made up”, he said: “No, that’s not right. That’s really not fair.

“It was a professional assumption of what would be required over the period of days,” he added.

Asked if any artificial intelligence (AI) had been used in the force’s planning process, he said: “We don’t do that. We don’t use the AI.”

O’Hara told the committee that the decision to ban fans was “based on safety”.

He denied that the force merely focused on intelligence from Dutch police, instead pointing to “a huge degree of consternation” from the community around the arrival of Maccabi.

“There was a lot of intelligence that people would actively seek out Maccabi fans and seek violence towards them,” he said.

“There was a range of options available. The challenge, particularly, was that the Maccabi fans would target the community. This was all forming part of the heat of the situation.”

The head of the UK football policing unit said that the “distinguishing dynamic” with the Maccabi v Aston Villa game was a threat that some Maccabi fans might seek confrontation with the local community.

Mark Roberts, chief constable for Cheshire and head of the UK football policing unit, told the committee: “We normally plan for away fans and their risk fans to seek disorder with rival fans. The difference here was that there was a threat that some Maccabi fans might seek confrontation with the local community.”

Guildford said he is “very much sorry, and I do regret the focus that this has placed on our local Jewish community, in light of all the other events that have happened nationally and globally.”

He  added: “And that’s why we have absolutely redoubled our efforts to make sure that as soon as any of those events occurred we are absolutely behind the community and we are working with them closely and continue to do so.”