Police watchdog may investigate West Midlands Police over Maccabi fan ban
West Midlands Police may be investigated over how it handled the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Aston Villa match, a police watchdog has said.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) told the BBC it could use its power to investigate “if the evidence we have warrants it” but that it must consider that evidence “before determining our next steps”.
Its director, Rachel Watson, said the watchdog was willing to use its “power of initiative” given the “sensitivities” of the case, according to the Sunday Times.
Maccabi fans were banned from attending the match in Birmingham on 6 November due to allegations of hooliganism at other away matches they attended.
But the government’s antisemitism adviser has since said some of the intelligence the force used to reach its decision was “inaccurate”.
Lord Mann said: Home Affairs Committee earlier this month that some facts about previous matches were changed to suit the decision.
West Midlands Police also faced criticism after two of its high-ranking officers repeated some of these inaccuracies before the committee.
The IOPC tends to investigate cases referred to it by individual police forces; usually when someone dies due to police action or when a police officer is charged with a criminal offense.
Therefore, it is relatively rare to initiate one’s own investigation without guidance.
The IOPC is not yet investigating the force’s decision, but a spokesman said on Sunday: “Examining the force’s involvement in decision-making is right in the interests of public trust and police accountability.”
They said HM Constabulary and the Fire and Rescue Service Inspectorate were reviewing the risk assessment West Midlands Police carried out before the incident and the extent to which the intelligence it had collected “reflected the full information and intelligence picture”.
They added that the Home Affairs Committee had asked the force for “additional evidence” about Chief Constable Craig Guildford and Deputy Chief Constable Mike O’Hara joining the committee earlier this month.
“It is important for us to evaluate the evidence on these processes before determining our next steps.”
An IOPC spokesman said it had written to West Midlands Police and the regional police and crime commissioner “to seek assurances about what assessments they have made of any behaviour”.
They said this was important “to understand why a formal referral was not made”.
MPs had previously heard that the ban was based on information Dutch police commanders gave to police about violence at last year’s Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi in Amsterdam.
Following this, the Dutch courts stated that evidence showed that the Israeli club’s fans had been subjected to violence, and also that the club’s fans had taken down Palestinian flags, damaged taxis and shouted racist slogans against Arabs.
Although West Midlands Police said the decision was “not taken lightly”, senior MPs including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it amounted to antisemitism.
Lord Mann told the Home Affairs Committee there were many inaccuracies in West Midlands Police’s intelligence report.
He stated that Maccabi fans “lowered Palestinian flags” on the match day in the Netherlands the night before the incident. There was also a reference to a match between Maccabi and West Ham that never took place.
The police were also forced to apologize for ACC O’Hara’s situation. Repeated confirmation to the committee that representatives of the Jewish community said they did not want Maccabi fans Even though they didn’t say anything like that during the match.
This week, Maccabi Tel Aviv were fined €20,000 (£17,550) for the “racist and/or discriminatory behavior” of their fans during a match in Stuttgart, Germany, on 11 December.
Fans were also given an away game penalty.
