Israelis should be welcome in Birmingham

Same here. The only people who cared about the safety of the Villa fans were the police and the SAG. It could have been managed with their recommendations in place but the hyperbole, falsehoods and media frenzy have turned it into something far worse than it needed to be. We’re not going to go either.

Sorry I mean to quote @Craftysue the Villa season ticket holder.

The inability to distinguish between the conflict in Gaza and a football match is why the game should be played behind closed doors. No violence (if that is your concern), no support for anti-Semitism (if that is your perspective). The lines are too blurred. It’s only a football game and it isn’t important enough to make Birmingham a tinderbox. No side ‘wins’.

As a season ticket holder I was hoping we'd avoid Maccabi in the draw. I hate to say it but I think it should be played without any fans. Tommy Robinson has asked his supporters to show support for the Israeli team and proPalestinian groups are still planning to protest. I won't be going anywhere near Villa Park and lots of supporters I sit near have said the same thing.
I'm genuinely concerned about what will happen outside the ground - I hope I'm wrong , I've been going to Villa Park for 30 plus years and have never felt unsafe until now.

' I just find it fascinating that your side will describe a stadium ban as “thuggery” but not anything related to what Israel have done'

Yes, which as I said is quite revealing. It isn't about a football match is it?

Funny because you’re the ones who brought up everything but the banning order.

i don’t think the ban is related to the war. I just find it fascinating that your side will describe a stadium ban as “thuggery” but not anything related to what Israel have done.

Yes, it is fascinating isn't it. Bit like the MP who was very worried about safety but he only said that after he'd stated his opinion about alleged genocide.

People can't seem to see that when they conflate gaza with a football match in Birmingham it is quite revealing.

However hard people protest, it always seems to get back to one issue, justification for demonising Israel.

As has everyone before. It’s just interesting how language changes depending on who’s being spoken about.

You seem to have strayed from your narrative of it being just about the football.

Mad that a stadium ban is “thuggery” but Israel killing kids is just par for the course

I was talking about anti-Israeli thuggery in the Aston Villa decision. Anti-Israeli (antisemitic) thuggery in Amsterdam is a matter of record.

You’re free to go look at videos of the incident

Yeah, an unsourced article in the Guardian. That doesn’t even say that anti-Israeli thuggery wasn’t a factor. That’s convincing.

🙄

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/21/police-intelligence-on-extreme-maccabi-fans-with-history-of-violence-led-to-villa-park-ban

Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were banned from watching their game against Aston Villa after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club...

According to sources, police intelligence said:

• Scores of extreme Maccabi fans with a past history of violence and shouting “racist taunts” were expected to travel to the Birmingham game.
• Dutch police told their British counterparts that the Maccabi fans had instigated trouble in Amsterdam at a game last year.
• They had randomly picked Muslims in Amsterdam to attack. That led to reprisal violence with some Dutch Jews attacked.
• A huge Dutch police effort, involving 5,000 officers across three days, was needed to quell the trouble.
• A community impact assessment by West Midlands police recorded that some Jewish people wanted the Maccabi fans banned because of the trouble that might ensue if they attended.
• Any trouble started by Maccabi fans attending the Birmingham game could lead to reprisals from local people and further trouble.
• The process did not consider whether the ban on fans of the Israeli club could be criticised as antisemitic itself or surrendering to antisemitism.

But yeah, antisemitism yada yada.

They're just violent racist thugs. It's not antisemitic to admit that such people exist in Israel the same as in any other country, and need to be treated the same (ie avoided). It's the opposite. A jewish thug is just a thug, like any other kind.

MTA is not a reliable source on this.

That’s no answer.

There is nothing to suggest that the police view was that Maccabi supporters should be banned simply because of their previous disorder. There is every reason to think - including reference to Amsterdam - that the police view included, possibly as the major reason, a wider fear of anti-Israel thuggery.

It’s been shown on this thread that away supporter bans are not just handed out like sweeties and that sectarian grudges and local rivalries are the usual triggers.

And that UEFA did not support a ban.

And that MTA’s statement makes clear its (reasonable and well-founded) belief that other prejudices are at work.

There’s also nothing to state that it’s because of that.

I fear some of you just don’t understand how football, and stadium bans, work.

The article clearly explains it and it was due to events in Manchester.

No, that’s the point. It may be part of why they’ve been banned. But there’s another part that’s just as likely - I say more likely - that the police didn’t want crowds of violent anti-Israel protestors making trouble.

Yet again, there is nothing in what’s been announced that says that it’s only the Maccabi fans’ conduct that caused the ban. Nothing.

I don’t, nor have I ever, denied that. But you are ignoring that the MTA fans were violent and that’s why they’ve been banned.

I wasn't interested in whether the decision to ban the Diwali celebrations might be antisemitic, since clearly it isn't - more in why a group of Hindus would be disallowed their event because of purported "security concerns"

Sometimes it's hard not to wonder what the hell's goig on in Birmingham ...

Some did.

Do you deny that they were set upon by antisemitic thugs? Some of whom have been convicted.

I can’t say for sure, but it seems as if most casualties were Israeli.

If anything this makes it clear that it wasn’t an anti semitic decision. You don’t see these communities crying discrimination and starting protests. They’ve just quietly accepted it.