West Midlands Police seem to have essentially blamed Jewish soccer fans for their own persecution

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Policing issues in the United Kingdom’s third-largest urban area wouldn’t normally interest Canadians. But Craig Guildford, chief constable of the West Midlands Police (Birmingham being the biggest city under his watch) is currently in very hot water of a sort that some Canadian police chiefs should be, perhaps, as well. A Nov. 6 Europa League soccer match between storied Birmingham club Aston Villa and storied Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was contested in front of roughly 43,000 empty seats, has become emblematic of Jews in the U.K. essentially being punished for their own persecution. And it happens here too.

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The game was played in an empty stadium on the advice of West Midlands Police, who warned that Maccabi fans posed a threat to public safety, citing unrest they had allegedly caused at an October 2024 Europa League match in Amsterdam.

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Fans committed “serious assaults including throwing random members of the public” into canals, and targeted Muslims specifically, West Midlands Police warned, citing advice from their Dutch........

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