Police arrested 11 people during heated demonstrations outside Villa Park ahead of Aston Villa’s Europa League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Birmingham. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters gathered near the stadium on Thursday evening, and officers made multiple arrests as tensions flared, though the match went ahead without major interruption.
West Midlands Police said all those detained were men aged between 17 and 67. The force said the majority of the charges related to racially aggravated public order offences. Other reported arrests included a 21-year-old accused of attempting to throw fireworks into the stadium, a person suspected of possessing drugs with intent to supply, a 21-year-old who refused an order to remove a face covering, and a 17-year-old who ignored a dispersal order.
More than 700 officers from West Midlands Police and 25 other forces were deployed in the city for the fixture, supported by police horses, dogs, drones and road units. West Midlands Police posted details of some of the arrests on social media, reporting several people taken into custody for failing to comply with orders and for public order offences.
Inside Villa Park the atmosphere was comparatively subdued, with large areas of empty seating. Aston Villa defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0. The game was run as part of an extensive security operation and under strict access arrangements: Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were not permitted to attend after a decision by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group based on police intelligence.
West Midlands Police said the ban on visiting fans was not primarily about threats to Israelis attending the game. Chief Superintendent Tom Joyce told media that intelligence pointed to a section of the Maccabi support base with a history of hooliganism, stressing that the concern related to that subset of fans rather than all Maccabi followers.
Maccabi supporters have attracted increased scrutiny in recent months, in part because of tensions linked to Israel’s war in Gaza. Last season violent scenes involving Maccabi fans in Amsterdam during a Europa League tie with Ajax resulted in more than 60 arrests and several people needing hospital treatment. Verified footage from that episode showed chanting and the burning of a Palestinian flag, and local authorities later said they would not host the team again.
Football commentator Nicholas Blincoe told Al Jazeera that a vocal minority among Maccabi’s ultras had become more right-wing and explicitly racist, a factor that has influenced policing and match planning.
Police said the enforcement and deployment aimed to keep the public safe and to ensure the fixture could proceed. After the game, officers continued inquiries into the incidents outside the stadium and the circumstances of the arrests.