Police have arrested 11 people during heated demonstrations in advance of the politically charged Europa League match between Aston Villa and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in Birmingham.
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters gathered outside the stadium to protest on Thursday evening, but despite the tensions, the game went ahead without major disruptions.
The match, in which the hosts beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0, at Villa Park in Birmingham, was held under an enormous security operation.
West Midlands Police (WMP) said in a statement after the game that those arrested were all men and boys aged between 17 and 67. The majority were arrested for racially aggravated public offences.
Other arrests included a 21-year-old who tried to throw fireworks into the stadium and another person suspected of possessing drugs with the intent to supply. Police also detained a 21-year-old who refused to remove a face covering when ordered to do so, and a 17-year-old who ignored a dispersal order.
More than 700 officers from WMP and 25 other forces across the United Kingdom were deployed in the city for the match, which kicked off at 20:00 GMT – alongside police horses, dogs, drones and road units.
The atmosphere inside the stadium was relatively quiet, with large sections of empty seats.
Aston Villa announced last month that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters would not be permitted to attend the match, a decision made by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group based on intelligence provided by police.
Sky News reported on Thursday that police had banned Maccabi supporters due to “significant levels of hooliganism” in the fan base, which threatened safety around the match, rather than over threats to Israelis attending the game.
“I’m aware there’s a lot of commentary around the threat to the (Maccabi) fans being the reason for the decision. To be clear, that was not the primary driver,” West Midlands Police Chief Superintendent Tom Joyce told Sky.
“We have intelligence and information that says that there is a section of Maccabi fans, not all Maccabi fans, but a section who engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism,” Joyce said.
Fans scuffle with police outside the stadium before the match [Hannah McKay /Reuters]
Maccabi supporters draw attention
Fan bans are uncommon in European football and are usually imposed only when there is a history of violence between rival supporters. In this case, there have been no previous incidents involving fans of Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
However, Maccabi supporters have drawn increasing attention over the past year, partly due to tensions surrounding Israel’s war in Gaza. Most notably, violent clashes broke out between Maccabi fans and residents in Amsterdam last season during a Europa League match against Ajax.
More than 60 people were arrested, and five were taken to hospital following a night of unrest.
Police said anti-Israeli gangs on scooters chased and beat Maccabi fans.
However, verified video footage from the Reuters news agency showed Maccabi fans in Amsterdam chanting anti-Arab slogans in the days leading up to the game. Police reported that the team’s supporters also burned a Palestinian flag, tore down another, and vandalised a taxi. The city’s mayor later announced she would not host the Maccabi team again.
Football expert Nicholas Blincoe said the risk of unrest during the Aston Villa-Maccabi Tel Aviv game was also linked to what he described as the “racist” history of Maccabi supporters.
“These [Maccabi] ultras have become increasingly right-wing, nationalistic, and explicitly racist,” he told Al Jazeera.
Israeli supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv watch their team play against Aston Villa in the Europa League on Thursday [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
