Removing Israeli teams from UEFA competitions/Boycotting the Maccabi TA game

[Clampy]

We were told they are 'moving at pace' to find a way through this. But that was 36 hours ago.
As soon as the decision was made to ban their fans was made, all the main party leaders (apart from The Greens) immediately said it was wrong.
Presumably they are now discussing exactly the issues involved that were discussed here in the days immediately after the draw and are finding it is a little more complicated and nuanced. All that the knee jerk reactions from our political leaders and the consequent media coverage has done is fan the flames making a bad situation worse.

I think there is another SAG meeting next week which may be why nothing has been said since.

[PeterWithe]

We were told they are 'moving at pace' to find a way through this. But that was 36 hours ago.
As soon as the decision was made to ban their fans was made, all the main party leaders (apart from The Greens) immediately said it was wrong.
Presumably they are now discussing exactly the issues involved that were discussed here in the days immediately after the draw and are finding it is a little more complicated and nuanced. All that the knee jerk reactions from our political leaders and the consequent media coverage has done is fan the flames making a bad situation worse.

Hopefully, we are in ‘yesterday’s chip paper’ territory.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I'll order one of each. Could you also provide a pair of scissors and a needle and thread.

[algy]

My hopes are the game goes ahead at Villa Park and we hammer them. I feel their hooligan element is overblown in comparison to other moodier teams we've played thus far (bans/fines/arrests etc) and I think the numbers they would have been allowed to have brought would have been trifling from WMP under differing circumstances.

The attraction for protesters is likely and that complicates. This Tommy Robinson element is annoying, but I assume he's likely subject to a banning order still from his Mig days and likely wouldn't be allowed near Villa Park for those reasons? Perhaps I'm wrong. But they can all fuck off; EDL types  "patriots", sectarian MPs and the lot. Get fucked, all of you. You're not wanted in B6 and get our name out of your corrosive words.

Aspirational but I just hope its business as usual for us match going fans who want to go free of outside noise to watch us on our march to Istanbul in May.

All very sensible.

I don’t think forfeiting the game would be a good idea at all. The sporting consequences for us would be far harsher than for them (as Dave said), and on top of that we’d likely be painted as anti-Semitic.

I don’t think Israeli teams should be allowed to compete at this time - but given that they are, we need to play (and hopefully hammer) them.

I’ve thought as soon as we drew them that the game is likely to be a dickhead magnet, and thanks to the last week it’s pretty much guaranteed that it will be.

Think the ideal situation is that the ban is maintained. I’d no strong feelings one way or another on banning their supporters from the game. I’d probably slightly fall on the side of not allowing them to come, but don’t doubt we could’ve handled it (with reinforced police). However, having gone down that route, I’d think reversing the decision will cause more problems than it solves. Policing it will already be harder with Tommy Two Names mob knocking about, the last thing WMP need is a bunch of right wing hooligans to deal with on top of that.

Suspect regardless, the best case scenario will be that the condiment wars will look like a bunch of twats throwing ketchup and mayonnaise about.

[Dante Lavelli]

We were told they are 'moving at pace' to find a way through this. But that was 36 hours ago.
As soon as the decision was made to ban their fans was made, all the main party leaders (apart from The Greens) immediately said it was wrong.
Presumably they are now discussing exactly the issues involved that were discussed here in the days immediately after the draw and are finding it is a little more complicated and nuanced. All that the knee jerk reactions from our political leaders and the consequent media coverage has done is fan the flames making a bad situation worse.

Thats a fair point.  There’s a high chance they had no clue it was happening then heard the headline and provided a knee jerk response when asked a question.  They’re now deep in the weeds trying to work it out, whilst having dick heads like Tommy Robinson chucking petrol on the bonfire.

[rob_bridge]

I think Jenrick the racist and the Your Party local MP, also racist, should be made to sit together and wear those half and half scarves - Israel and Palestine.

It's a roadmap for peace.

[Crown Hill]

Spoke to a bloke in Bruges last year with the wanker scarfs and he said they make a good £4k a match gross from them. 3 of them had come over to flog them.

Aside from anything else all the Villa supporters in the home end were wearing them!

[Chris Smith]

My hopes are the game goes ahead at Villa Park and we hammer them. I feel their hooligan element is overblown in comparison to other moodier teams we've played thus far (bans/fines/arrests etc) and I think the numbers they would have been allowed to have brought would have been trifling from WMP under differing circumstances.

The attraction for protesters is likely and that complicates. This Tommy Robinson element is annoying, but I assume he's likely subject to a banning order still from his Mig days and likely wouldn't be allowed near Villa Park for those reasons? Perhaps I'm wrong. But they can all fuck off; EDL types  "patriots", sectarian MPs and the lot. Get fucked, all of you. You're not wanted in B6 and get our name out of your corrosive words.

Aspirational but I just hope its business as usual for us match going fans who want to go free of outside noise to watch us on our march to Istanbul in May.

Agreed but I think your last point is probably a vain hope. At the very least the police will likely want to make a big show to justify their original stance so it will take forever getting into the ground.

[Pat McMahon]

Spoke to a bloke in Bruges last year with the wanker scarfs and he said they make a good £4k a match gross from them. 3 of them had come over to flog them.

Aside from anything else all the Villa supporters in the home end were wearing them!

Except me and my mates!

[Stu]

I hope that Villa are doing some outreach to our Jewish community, to explain the process of this decision and reassure. Jewish people are a vanishingly small minority in Birmingham and from what I understand pretty orthodox so will feel close ties to Israel.

[KevinGage]

[Rigadon]

Somebody said in an earlier post, the only utterly predictable part of this affair is that cretins across the political spectrum have jumped on it to make some noise.  These fuckers don’t give a shit about what’s right, only what makes the loudest noise. 

Sorry to get a bit Rocky 4, but it’s a game of football, not a war.

[SamTheMouse]

But they can all fuck off; EDL types  "patriots", sectarian MPs and the lot. Get fucked, all of you. You're not wanted in B6 and get our name out of your corrosive words.

If the press office are looking for ideas for their next club statement, they could do a lot worse than this.

[PeterWithesShin]

Looking on Twitter about today's game and there's so much shit like the following, i'm not even going to include their names as bollocks to them. And all these are posted in the last 30 mins

Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. are no more violent than any other fans, there were incidents in Amsterdam after the actual real deal, no fucking around, far right organised a 'Jew hunt' which has been widely reported in the press

West Midlands Police and Aston Villa have scapegoated Jews

Millwall are due at St Andrews 2 days before the Villa- Maccabi game. Obviously West Midlands police will announce a ban on away fans any time now.

Maybe Villa fans should indicate that they won't turn up unless the away fans are let in.

Wonder if they will ban spurs fans from travelling to villa park

From a Villa fan

We all know the threat does not come from Villa or Maccabi fans….. it’s from the terrorist loving local community!

[spartacuss]

Do they have any idea, the politicians and the pundits, how they are imposing a dangerous situation on Aston locals and Villa fans so they can smugly claim to be 'opposing anti-semitism'? Are they aware that the away Maccabi fans, most of whom fall in to the the teen to thirties age group, will be those very people who are required, by the Israeli constitution, to do service in the IDF? It's a fair bet that a significant number will have done required 'service' in Gaza during the past two years. 

Does Starmer and co. really want to have fans who distinguished themselves in Amsterdam with (call and response) chants such as "There are no schools in Gaza. Why? Because there are no children...!" descending on a predominantly Muslim and black British locality?  How will those security stewards - mainly drawn from the locality - feel about fans who refuse to be frisked by 'Arabs' (in Amsterdam)?  Will Villa be expected to have 'acceptable' white stewards to oblige?  What will be the effect on Villa's painstaking, excellent work on forging links with the local community, if they have massive disruption (with added fascist Tommy Robinson and friends, if his 'X' account is to be believed) occurring through Aston and the city centre?

Also, for the umpteenth time, can we stop the conflation of anti-semitism and being opposed to Israeli murderous, ethno-nationalism? My Jewish relatives and friends are sick of being considered as part of the the right-wing, genocidal programme being inflicted on the Palestinians by the corrupt fascists Netanyahu and his supporters.