Revealed: Dutch official dossier undermines West Midlands Police ‘Israeli hooligan’ claims

West Midlands Police (WMP) are facing calls for an independent probe after a dossier seen by the JC shows strong evidence that claims of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans hooliganism were wildly exaggerated to justify their ban.

The force cited claims that up to 600 of the club’s supporters committed “hate-motivated crimes” in Amsterdam last year, it is understood.

Yet on the night of the Ajax match Israeli fans were assaulted in large numbers on the city’s streets, in what was later revealed to be a planned and organised “Jew hunt”.

The official report by the Amsterdam authorities obtained by the JC says Maccabi fans “do not have a violent reputation”, and makes clear it was the Israeli club’s supporters who were the victims of “groups that are looking for a confrontation”.

The document also stated that of the 59 suspects arrested, only ten were Israeli while the others were from the Netherlands.

Both Labour and Conservative politicians are urgently demanding transparency from WMP over why they stopped the Israeli club’s supporters from attending the match against Aston Villa two weeks ago.

There is also now concern over whether international fixtures should take place at the Birmingham venue, and particularly its suitability to host games at the 2028 European Championships as currently planned.

Police outside the stadium prior to the match between Aston Villa FC and Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC at Villa Park . (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)Getty Images

WMP said the ban decision was made with the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and was for “public safety” because of “hooliganism” by Maccabi fans, citing clashes at a match against Ajax in Amsterdam last November.

The findings by the prosecutor and police in Amsterdam contradict statements by senior WMP officers to justify the ban, which was condemned at the time by the prime minister and home secretary as well as leading Jewish groups.

The force have admitted they failed to engage adequately with the local Jewish community, the JC can also reveal.

Labour peer and former Birmingham MP Lord McCabe told the JC: “These contradictory reports demand swift and open clarification from West Midlands Police.

“The handling of the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture has been an unedifying saga from start to finish.”

The former Labour Friends of Israel parliamentary chair added: “Full transparency about how and why extraordinary decisions were made is needed immediately – whether from West Midlands Police or via an independent investigation.”

Conservative MP Nick Timothy, an Aston Villa supporter and former special adviser to prime minister Theresa May, told the JC: “With the differences between West Midlands Police and the Dutch authorities in their characterisation of events in Amsterdam last year, the chief constable and local authorities should publish all intelligence and information upon which they made their decision to ban Jewish, Israeli fans from Villa Park.”

Maccabi fans stand behind a fence inside a basketball court at the Villa match (Image Roland Leon)[Missing Credit]

Former Conservative cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell, who represents the Birmingham constituency of Sutton Coldfield, said: “These discrepancies raise more questions around the ill-judged decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from last week’s match.

“It is in the public interest for West Midlands Police to set the record straight by releasing all advice they have received from Dutch authorities in full – I urge them to do so”, he told the JC.

One Jewish communal source expressed concern over future international fixtures, telling the JC: “Given the shameful debacle earlier this month, it is right to question whether it is appropriate for Villa Park to host fixtures for Euro 2028.

“What happens if Israel qualify? Will the Safety Advisory Group embarrass Britain on biggest world stage yet again?”

Ahead of the Europa League match against Aston Villa two weeks ago, one senior officer had said the ban decision was based “exclusively” on the “behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans” who he accused of “quite significant levels of hooliganism”.

A WMP document reported on at the time cited the events in Amsterdam last November.

The force accused “significant numbers” of Maccabi’s followers of being involved in “demonstrations and confrontations”, and cited claims that on the match day up to 600 of the club’s fans “…committed a variety of targeted, hate motivated crimes”.

The official Dutch report seen by the JC paints a very different picture of the events in Amsterdam.

The official statement of facts (feitenrelaas) by Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla and Chief Prosecutor René de Beukelaer was presented to the Amsterdam municipality shortly after the events in the city.

Ahead of the game between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, Dutch authorities did not assess that that supporters of the Israeli team held a particularly negative reputation for hooliganism, racism or violence.

The report is explicit: “The supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv do not have a violent reputation, although a part of this support can be characterised as fanatical. This is expressed, among other things, in the lighting of flares.”

It continued to say that: “The Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv match is not a high-risk match from a football perspective, according to UEFA, the clubs themselves and our police. In addition, there is no animosity between the Ajax supporters and the Maccabi supporters; they maintain friendly ties.”

Even though the fixture was taking place “in a special context, because of the war in the Middle East and the tensions it is causing in the city”, the anniversary of Kristallnacht and with the knowledge of a daily pro-Palestine demonstration in the city, they did not assess there was enough grounds to ban Maccabi fans.

The report does point to aggressive behaviour by a small section of the Israeli fans. The day before the match, around 50 pulled down a Palestinian flag and taxis were vandalised by a number of the fans, who disappeared before police could make any arrests.

Despite an additional meeting of Dutch authorities that discussed “concerns about the aggression of the Maccabi supporters and the reaction of taxi drivers to it”, they still decided that the match go ahead.

In the afternoon before the fixture, authorities found “messages on social media increased showing the willingness to take action against Maccabi supporters. The tone of the messages hardened and antisemitic terms were used”.

The match itself went ahead largely without incident, but it was only after the fixture where, despite some examples of vandalism by Maccabi fans, the authorities state that there were “groups that are looking for a confrontation with Maccabi supporters”.

Authorities made a total of 59 arrests during the period. Only 10 were Israelis and the remaining 49 Dutch. Five people were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

At a later trial in Holland, it was revealed that the assaults on Maccabi fans had been planned in WhatsApp messages in which participants talked of a “Jew hunt”.

Online footage of the incidents in Amsterdam showed an Israeli fleeing into a canal to escape attackers, another pleading “I am not Jewish”, and another seemingly unconscious Israeli repeatedly kicked on the ground.

Dutch politicians, including the Dutch king, apologised for the scenes of violence, which took place near the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

In October, WMP backed the decision of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) to prohibit Maccabi fans from attending their side’s fixture at Villa Park earlier this month, claiming at the time that: “Based on our professional judgment, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety.”

WMP Chief Superintendent Tom Joyce in an interview with Sky News said that the move to ban Maccabi fans was done “exclusively” on “the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans”, who he accused of being engaged in “quite significant levels of hooliganism”.

The Birmingham Mail have since obtained a police document, apparently presented to the SAG, which linked the decision to ban Maccabi fans to the behaviour of their supporters in Amsterdam in November last year, when they played local side Ajax.

Speaking in the Lords, Labour peer Lord Mann urged authorities in the UK to consider adopting a similar system to the Dutch statement of facts: “Otherwise, what happens is that people will put things on social media suggesting that they are the facts of what happened, but those facts are fundamentally inaccurate.”

Mann also made thinly veiled criticism of the SAG’s decision to ban Maccabi fans on public safety grounds and attacked “inaccurate discussion in the media” about the decision to do so.

The JC can also reveal that at a meeting with the local Jewish community on October 20 West Midlands Police acknowledged their lack of proper engagement with the local Jewish community in Birmingham ahead of Villa’s clash with Maccabi Tel Aviv and said that they should have engaged earlier and apologised for not doing so.

However, one local Jewish communal figure expressed sympathy for the local police force and the dilemmas they faced.

Ruth Jacobs, chair of Birmingham & West Midlands Jewish rep council, told the JC that: “Mistakes have obviously been made, but whatever decision West Midlands Police will have made would have resulted in them being criticised by one or more of the many diverse communities in Birmingham.”

Despite this, Jacobs backed calls for transparency: “What needs to come out is that the information concerning the Maccabi fans – which they used to back the decision to ban them from Villa Park – was accurate.”

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