Maccabi ’Tel Aviv’ To Skip Tickets for UK Europa Match

By Staff, Agencies

"Israeli" football team Maccabi "Tel Aviv" said it will turn down any tickets offered to its fans for a match in the United Kingdom, even if an earlier decision by local officials to bar the team’s followers from attending is reversed.

Maccabi "Tel Aviv" said on Monday that “hard lessons learned” meant it had decided to decline any offer of tickets for the Europa League game against Aston Villa.

“The wellbeing and safety of our fans is paramount,” the team said in a statement posted online. “Our decision should be understood in that context.”

The club also said it had been working to “stamp out racism” within the “more extreme elements” of its fan base.

“Our first-team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide,” it said.

The team’s decision came a day after "Israeli" police cancelled a match between Maccabi and its rival "Tel Aviv" team Hapoel before kickoff over what they described as “public disorder and violent riots”.

The move by "Israeli" authorities to cancel the game stood in contrast with criticism by British and "Israeli" leaders of Birmingham City’s decision to ban Maccabi fans from the November 6 match at Villa Park in Birmingham, central England.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the ban by the city’s Safety Advisory Group [SAG] “the wrong decision”, while "Israeli" Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar called for the decision to be reversed.

The UK government said on Friday that it was working to override local authorities to allow "Israeli" fans to be present.

But after "Israeli" police shut down the match between "Tel Aviv" teams on Sunday, some UK politicians questioned whether the government should intervene in Birmingham.

Richard Burgon, a Labour MP, broke with his government, saying the developments vindicated the decision to ban away fans from attending the game.

“This news exposes how absurd that campaign has been,” he said on X. “The people of Birmingham have a right to be kept safe.”

West Midlands Police said last week that they had classified the match as high risk based on “current intelligence and previous incidents."

“Based on our professional judgement, we believe this measure will help mitigate risks to public safety,” the police force said.

Last year’s clashes in Amsterdam between pro-Palestinian supporters and fans of Maccabi "Tel Aviv" led to dozens of arrests.

The clashes followed incidents of "Israeli" fans rampaging through the Dutch capital, assaulting residents, destroying symbols of Palestinian solidarity and chanting racist and genocidal slogans against Palestinians and Arabs.

The clashes also featured reported incidents of anti-Semitism, including a private messaging chat calling for a “Jew hunt”.

Legal experts have also voiced concerns about "Israeli" teams participating in international sporting matches, citing a report by United Nations investigators that affirmed that "Israel" is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians.

Earlier this month, more than 30 legal experts wrote to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, saying that banning "Israel" from competitions was “imperative”.

“UEFA must not be complicit in sports-washing such flagrant breaches of international law, including but not limited to the act of genocide,” the experts wrote.