the travelling fans of the Israeli team were subject to \u201coutbursts of violence\u201d after the game<\/a>, according to Dutch police, who said it arrested 62 people following the clashes with five hospitalised. Police confirmed that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters attacked a taxi and set a Palestinian flag on fire the day before the match, which had an additional presence of 800 officers placed on duty by city officials due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n![\"Dutch](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2182894662-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Dutch police at the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv game last year (VLN Niews \/ ANP \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
UEFA rules stipulate that home teams must make at least five per cent of their stadium\u2019s capacity available for away supporters. When asked for comment, UEFA said: \u201cUEFA wants fans to be able to travel and support their team in a safe, secure and welcoming environment, and encourages both teams and the competent authorities to agree on the implementation of appropriate measures necessary to allow this to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all cases, the competent local authorities remain responsible for decisions related to the safety and security of matches taking place on their territory, such decisions being determined on the basis of thorough risk assessments, which vary from match to match and take into consideration previous circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
WMP said: \u201cFollowing a thorough assessment, we have classified the upcoming Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv fixture as high risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: \u201cA multi-agency meeting was held with all relevant partners to assess safety arrangements for the upcoming fixture. Following a thorough review, concerns were raised regarding public safety if away fans attend the match, by the police. As a result, a collective decision was made to restrict away fan attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 30 per cent of the population of Birmingham is Muslim, according to a 2021 census, and the city has seen frequent pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the start of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Tight security and political tensions overshadowed Israel\u2019s recent World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Italy this month, with both games taking place amid a huge police presence.<\/p>\n
Ayoub Khan, the independent member of parliament for Perry Barr, a district of Birmingham, has signed a petition calling for the game to be cancelled, relocated to a neutral third country or held behind closed doors without spectators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are calling on UEFA, the UK Culture Minister, and the club itself to urgently cancel this fixture or take immediate steps to ensure public safety and community harmony,\u201d read the petition<\/a>. Given the fixture is now only 20 days away, it appears unlikely that it will be cancelled or relocated due to the logistical undertaking that would require.<\/p>\nVilla have won their opening two Europa League games against Bologna and Feyenoord, and will face Go Ahead Eagles away from home on October 23 before Maccabi\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
Maccabi Tel Aviv did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters of Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not be allowed to attend the Europa League game against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[18496,42333,220,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-308898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-aston-villa","9":"tag-europa-league","10":"tag-premier-league","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115385657782895682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}