The Maccabi fan ban scandal explained - and what next for the police
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
The home secretary has said she has lost confidence in West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford, after a "damning" report into the decision to ban Israeli football fans from a match with Aston Villa last year. Shabana Mahmood said the report from Sir Andy Cooke, the chief inspector of constabulary, identified widespread failings at the force. But how did we get here? What did this case teach us about the way policing and politics interact? And after yet another scandal, what next for the police?
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Guest: Gabirel Pogrund, Whitehall Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producers: Olivia Case and Taryn Siegel.
Read more: Plot to attack Maccabi fans ‘should have been treated as hate crime’
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:06.1 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:11.4 | Two months ago, something very unusual happened. |
| 0:16.0 | A football match, a big Europa League fixture that would normally be sold out, was instead played to a |
| 0:24.0 | half-empty stadium. Maccabee Tel Aviv fans have been banned from Aston Villa's Europa |
| 0:29.8 | League clash in Birmingham over, quote, safety fears. West Midlands police said Maccabee |
| 0:37.0 | Tel Aviv fans had been banned from attending the match |
| 0:40.2 | because of a heightened risk to public safety. |
| 0:43.4 | There is a section of Maccabee fans, not all Maccabee fans, but a section of them |
| 0:47.2 | who engage in quite significant levels of hooliganism. |
| 0:51.0 | But very quickly, there were serious questions being asked about the police's claims. |
| 0:56.1 | I found that one of Britain's biggest police forces used wholly made up or misleading intelligence |
| 1:03.3 | to justify a politically contentious decision, a ban on away fans attending a Maccabee-Teleave |
| 1:10.8 | Astinville game last year. |
| 1:13.2 | That's Gabriel Pogrand, the Sunday Times Whitehall editor who's been investigating this story. |
| 1:20.2 | Now, following an official and damning investigation, the government agrees. |
| 1:27.7 | In an extraordinary statement to Parliament, |
| 1:30.1 | the Home Secretary announced that she wanted the police chief responsible to go. |
| 1:35.0 | The ultimate responsibility for the forces failure to discharge its duties |
| 1:38.9 | on a matter of such national importance rests with the Chief Constable. |
| 1:43.7 | And it is for that reason that I must declare today |
| 1:46.1 | that the chief constable of West Midlands police no longer has my confidence. |
... |
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