The combined Maccabi thread - now with are you going? poll

[WassallVillain]

Villa warn fans against political messaging

Aston Villa's warning is proof that even with Maccabi declining any tickets, the stakes remain high before one of the most highly politicised matches English football will have seen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce86vy4dvdmo

Whats this crap about Birmingham hosting future events?

Bullshit made up statement for rage-bait.

I imagine the BBC would much rather events are staged in Manchester.

[purpletrousers]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/21/police-intelligence-on-extreme-maccabi-fans-with-history-of-violence-led-to-villa-park-ban

Turns out the main reason Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned is because they are violent racist arseholes who were expected to cause trouble. Who knew?

The Jonathan Liew piece, linked to within this Guardian piece, is the best analysis of the situation Ive read in the mainstream media.

Thanks, yes, now found that
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/21/standing-with-maccabis-football-hooligans-against-local-police-is-that-what-patriotism-looks-like-now

In case anyone else missed it.

Yours still somewhat confused as to what to do re attending. 

If there was a chant of “Free, free, free Palestine” I think I’d feel morally obliged to join in (possibly not start one)
Do I want to put myself in that situation and possible kerfuffle that might follow?

We have so so little voice in international politics, of the ability to be heard when we need to be. I think staying silent speaks of a complicity I can’t do. Ach.

[tomd2103]

Villa warn fans against political messaging

Aston Villa's warning is proof that even with Maccabi declining any tickets, the stakes remain high before one of the most highly politicised matches English football will have seen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce86vy4dvdmo

Whats this crap about Birmingham hosting future events?

Bullshit made up statement for rage-bait.

I imagine the BBC would much rather events are staged in Manchester.

It will be Second City status next.

[tomd2103]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by hteir fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chnts and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

The problem if you start going solely down the hooligan route Paul is that there are quite a number of clubs across Europe who have supporters who are well known for extreme violence and awful chanting (including this country and even our own city), so it's where you set that bar I suppose in terms of banning them.

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture. 

[Percy McCarthy]

There’s not many who’ve been an integral part of a three-day riot that took 5,000 police to quell.

[PeterWithesShin]

The chief constable of West Midlands Police said the force "hasn't failed anybody" as he defended the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from next month's fixture with Aston Villa.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8zm4zjj12o

[Dave]

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture. 

Yeah, obviously it's been a massive shit-show from all sides, but I do think Maccabi being such a bunch of wrong 'uns has made it a bit easier - if it had been an Israeli team without a long history of thuggery, I imagine the concerns about everything kicking off wouldn't have gone away.

[algy]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by hteir fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chnts and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

The problem if you start going solely down the hooligan route Paul is that there are quite a number of clubs across Europe who have supporters who are well known for extreme violence and awful chanting (including this country and even our own city), so it's where you set that bar I suppose in terms of banning them.

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture.

Yeah, this is it.   It's quite obviously going to be more than just a football match.  There's almost certainly going to be pro-Palestine protests in the city, and potentially pro-Israel ones (particularly now Tommy Ten Names has stuck his oar in).  The last thing that's needed is to add in hooligans who are known to cause trouble with the precise demographic of people who will be (a) at those protests and (b) live near to Villa Park.

[Crown Hill]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by hteir fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chnts and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

The problem if you start going solely down the hooligan route Paul is that there are quite a number of clubs across Europe who have supporters who are well known for extreme violence and awful chanting (including this country and even our own city), so it's where you set that bar I suppose in terms of banning them.

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture.

Most sensible and accurate comment I’ve read on here this wretched affair started!

[eye digress]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by their fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chants and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

Don't think Nandy is a nasty piece of work, per se.

What she has done, however, is to begin her argument with the conclusion and then work backwards. That's obviously not very smart (if we're being generous). In her defence, that was no more or less than her boss did, and we can recognise that that has forced her hand.

Does seem that quite a lot of air has been let out of the soufflé now, anyway.

On the positive side, this coverage has brought about a new and more accurate appreciation of what happened in Amsterdam.

[paul_e]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by hteir fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chnts and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

The problem if you start going solely down the hooligan route Paul is that there are quite a number of clubs across Europe who have supporters who are well known for extreme violence and awful chanting (including this country and even our own city), so it's where you set that bar I suppose in terms of banning them.

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture. 

I didn't do that though, I said that it's weird that she did the exact opposite and refused to even acknowledge the part their fan violence and racist chanting has played in the decision. It doesn't matter where you're from or what religion you have, if your fans are likely to turn up toa city with a big Muslim population and start singing about raping Muslim women and glorying the deaths of Muslim children and they have a history of violence then you're probably going to face some serious restrictions being placed on them, including bans.

Many teams have been banned from taking fans away over the years for things like this, the exceptional circumstances here aren't that Israelis are being singled out for unfair treatment, it's that the knee-jerk reaction from a huge part of the British political and media group was to expect the opposite and for their fans behaviour to be ignored for political reasons.

[malckennedy]

What a revolting piece of shit Nandy is.

I wouldn't go that far but I do find it weird that she, like many others, has made no attempt to recognise the multiple cases of hooliganism by hteir fans over the last couple of years or mention that some of their chnts and songs are highly problematic. I just don't get why it's so difficult for people to see that there's enough reasons for this ban without needing to bring Anti-semitism, Israel or jews into the conversation and by doing so you, to a degree, remove the consequences of their actions, which sets a really poor precedent if you then try to act tough on anti-social behaviour by other fans.

The problem if you start going solely down the hooligan route Paul is that there are quite a number of clubs across Europe who have supporters who are well known for extreme violence and awful chanting (including this country and even our own city), so it's where you set that bar I suppose in terms of banning them.

It's the mix of the political backdrop and local demographics that have created the tension around this fixture. 

I didn't do that though, I said that it's weird that she did the exact opposite and refused to even acknowledge the part their fan violence and racist chanting has played in the decision. It doesn't matter where you're from or what religion you have, if your fans are likely to turn up toa city with a big Muslim population and start singing about raping Muslim women and glorying the deaths of Muslim children and they have a history of violence then you're probably going to face some serious restrictions being placed on them, including bans.

Many teams have been banned from taking fans away over the years for things like this, the exceptional circumstances here aren't that Israelis are being singled out for unfair treatment, it's that the knee-jerk reaction from a huge part of the British political and media group was to expect the opposite and for their fans behaviour to be ignored for political reasons.

Exactly so Paul. It was about ignoring the threat of some appalling and dangerous people for political reasons rather than singling them out for political reasons.