Fans banned from match

[SunnySideDeepDown]

WTAF?!

https://news.sky.com/story/maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-will-not-be-allowed-to-attend-aston-villa-match-amid-safety-concerns-13451240

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned due to safety concerns AGAINST them?

Since when is it ok to victim blame and penalise people who have done nothing wrong? Surely the right course of action would be either to ban ALL fans of both sides or better police the event?

So are Jews not welcome at sports games now? Because some people are racist bullies?

I genuinely can’t believe this has been allowed. Where does it end? Can Jews no longer safely access society? What if the risk is high elsewhere, will they be banned then?

What do you think? AIBU to think this is discriminatory and a slippery slope?

Of course you have.

name the games, dates and evidence of that happening? Or is this just another desperate attempt to minimise what the MTA fans did?

Iqbal Mohamed MP tweeted
'thank you to all who put safety...above the zionist & political pressure to let Israeli hooligans & terrorists run riot in our country'.
I mean, British MPs aren't even bothering to hide their anti-semitism anymore!

I think the easiest way to frame it is like this.

If a group of Arab fans went to a neutral third country, held demonstrations where they chanted antisemitic slogans, chanted antisemitic slogans through the match, and then after the match attacked taxis, stole equipment from building sites and kept chanting antisemitic slogans, but were met with violence from the locals of the town who didn’t stand for it, would the same people here be saying that it was Islamophobia?

would the same people here be decrying their ban from other games as Islamophobia, a sign of the times and a sign of a serious problem?

”Fellow independent MP Iqbal Mohamed also welcomed the decision. He wrote: “Thank you all who put the safety of Aston Villa fans, Birmingham residents and the British public above the Zionist and political pressure to let Israeli hooligans and terrorists run riot in our country."
Mohamed has also called for "all Israeli teams and athletes" to be banned "from all international support".

So this isn’t about MTA - as lots of us knew. This is about anti Israel rhetoric and antisemitism.

This is racism.

Nothing in that tweet is anti semitic. Anti Zionism and criticising Israel is not antisemitic.

I don't think it's Jew hate. These fans have a reputation for thuggish and violent behaviour:

'There was significant unrest when Maccabi played Ajax on 7 ­November. A report by Dutch police into the ­disorder, which lasted two days, found that Maccabi fans had torn a Palestinian flag down from the facade of a local building and burned it, shouted “Fuck you, Palestine” and vandalised a taxi, among a series of incidents before the fixture.'

It isn't unreasonable to ban football hooligans from attending a match.

I agree that no one has the “right to be racist” but that is not the issue. The issue is all fans have been banned due to safety fears. There are many reasons why in my view this is wrong:

1. we shouldn’t ban all due to some
2. the problem is cited by the authorities that the demonstrations are the issue - so surely these should be banned not the fans
3. the community is everyone - all religions and ethnic groups, why exclude one
4. the view that you can be critical of a country’s govt without being racist it antisemtic is relevant here (even if one supports the Israeli govt) - no one knows what all the fans think so excluding them implies they think as one

The argument about excluding the fans is nuanced and not simplistic

Are you under the impression this MP would stand up for Western values, and you, if push came to shove? You need to see the bigger and far more sinister picture being painted.

@Lindos1 exactly. This wasn’t about MTA or specific events in football, that was a poorly veiled disguise many of us saw through.

This is about antisemitism. Why are we allowing people with those views into our political sphere?!

1. it happens all the time in football. This isn’t new.
2. the fans were violent first
3. yes, but this isn’t an ethnic group being excluded. It’s a group of fans
4. they’ve been excluded because they’re violent.

The decision wasn't made by him and his shit-stirring comments had no influence on it.

Football is a red herring here. This isn't about Aston Villa fans; this is about where Aston Villa is. The authorities are basically admitting that they cannot police Birmingham or ensure public safety in Birmingham. That should be the worry here. It's the internalised fatwa becoming pretty bloody external.

I’ll ask the question again.

if an Arab group of fans attended a match? Chanted anti semitic slogans and engaged in violence and were consequently banned would you label is Islamophobia

Because we have no choice now.

A small hardcore group have enabled mass immigration from theocratic countries on the grounds of ‘tolerance’ and labelled anyone who spoke out as racist.

They are now reaping the fruits of their labour - MPs who advocate for cousin marriage in Parliament, spew open antisemitism while whining about ‘hatred toward their community’, and have all but given up on their constituents to campaign permanent for Hamas Gaza.

You will never ever receive the tolerance you show them, and as the numbers grow, they’re becoming ever more emboldened.

It's not a red herring as football matches are one of the few occasions when large groups of men congregate, which is always going to be an increased risk even without additional factors.

Yes I would because no other football following has been banned based on unpleasantness. I hate football and it hate its followers - but this is discrimination.

This is a test for our Dear Leader.
He says he wants to protect Jewish communities in Britain.
Let's see.
Or is he lying about this, like he lies about EVERYTHING.

Perhaps not, but it’s at least helpful to those who can’t see what’s actually going on here.

Sadly, those “shit stirring comments” have real impact on people. Do his voters think Israelis are terrorists?!

Yes, they have.

the old firm has a blanket ban on away fans.

You think it’s right to prevent violence to visitors from "local thugs" by banning the visitors? How odd. As someone here has already pointed out, it’s like banning women's groups from holding meetings because they might be a target for local TRA thugs.

Starmer? He was the first to call it out wasn’t he?

I don’t understand the Keir hate.

If the authorities are genuinely banning Israeli fans because they think the Israeli fans are violent and racist then they need to come out and say it. Make it explicit, make it official and provide evidence. There must be a legal framework for doing this.

Unless, of course, it's not the Israeli fans who are worrying them. Birmingham, like Amsterdam, has lots of canals and I'm sure that images of Jewish people being beaten and thrown in them by Islamists is not the image it wants to project. How cowardly of them to cave to the threat like this.

“Mohamed has also called for "all Israeli teams and athletes" to be banned "from all international support".”

This is anti Israel, nothing to do with Maccabi fans behaviour.

The same has happened to Russia.

This is about violent, thuggish Maccabee fans who have a well earned reputation. NOT about decent Jewish people in the UK.
Old firm derby's also have fan bans for the same reason - violence is likely to break out.
Is it a shame a few football fans ruin it for the others, but that the way it is and always has been. If Keir steps in and says they can attend, he's going to be in a world of pain when it kicks off.