{"id":1180892,"date":"2026-09-01T16:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180892\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:16:42","slug":"leuven-mayor-bans-europa-league-match-against-israeli-team-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1180892\/","title":{"rendered":"Leuven mayor bans Europa League match against Israeli team \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11677\/13019864\/aston-villa-four-police-officers-injured-after-clashes-with-legia-warsaw-fans-at-villa-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Violence and hooliganism<\/a> are not uncommon at European-level football matches, nor are occasional orders that games should take place in neutral venues, behind closed doors or with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psv.nl\/en\/media\/article\/news-french-authorities-unexpectedly-ban-away-fans-at-psg-psv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">certain fans banned from attending<\/a> for safety reasons.<\/p>\n<p>The war in Gaza, though, has politicized such decisions as they relate to Israeli clubs, at the same time as exacerbating tensions around the visits of Israeli fans to some parts of Europe.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/amsterdam-football-violence-ajax-israel-maccabi-tel-aviv-netherlands-government-coalition-geert-wilders-dick-schoof\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amsterdam in November 2024<\/a>, supporters of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv were involved in violence across the city before and after a match with Ajax, with dozens of arrests and several people hospitalized.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping boisterous groups of opposing teams\u2019 football fans away from each other and under control is already a challenge for police, and adding the potential for political, antisemitic and racist provocation into the mix stretches their ability to keep the peace.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time Belgian authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/royal-belgian-football-association.prezly.com\/red-devils-play-nations-league-match-against-israel-in-debrecen-in-hungary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">have blocked a match<\/a> involving an Israeli team on security grounds. In 2024, Brussels refused to host Belgium\u2019s Nations League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c9ee88jglgro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">game<\/a> against Israel, citing the risk of major demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. The game was eventually moved to Debrecen, Hungary, and played behind closed doors. Ridouani had also previously refused to allow both the Belgian women\u2019s and men\u2019s national teams to play Israel at Leuven\u2019s Den Dreef stadium.<\/p>\n<p>U.K. club Aston Villa, when facing Maccabi in October 2025, was told by local authorities not to allow any away supporters to attend the game at the ground in Birmingham. The decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/keir-starmer-slams-decision-to-ban-maccabi-tel-aviv-football-fans-from-uk-match\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">caused political controversy<\/a> but ultimately prevented the feared disorder from taking place, as Maccabi declined to send fans to the game even if the decision were to be overturned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Violence and hooliganism are not uncommon at European-level football matches, nor are occasional orders that games should take&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1180893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[170535,1789,2000,299,5187,2194,7163],"class_list":["post-1180892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-belgian-politics","tag-belgium","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-gaza","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117196684213109071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}