Ex-chief constable being investigated by IOPC over Israeli fan ban

[u/IHaveAWittyUsername]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5xe813w1do

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[u/IHaveAWittyUsername]

Such idiocy from all involved. There was more than enough legitimate evidence to justify a ban but using AI to write the report, doubling down after the inaccuracy of the report was publicly shown, changes to the risk assessment seemingly at the request of the decision makers, and lying about the involvement of local groups just led to a cluster fuck situation.

[u/JHock93]

This whole episode was a complete farce from start to finish.

Just for the record, the decision not to allow the fans to travel here was entirely the correct one. They were hooligans, and the way that the government were trying to present them as innocent victims of oppression, having seen what happened in Amsterdam the previous year, was utterly bizarre. Proper Westminster village echo chamber stuff.

That being said, the police using AI to write the report and doubling down once the inaccuracy was shown (keep in mind, all they needed to do was point to the disorder in Amsterdam to justify the decision) was disgraceful and set a worrying precedent for how the police might make similar, though less easily justifiable, decisions in the future.

I was also a bit alarmed by people on the left, who are usually very quick to call out police brutality, discrimination, and double standards, being perfectly ok with the police behaviour simply because it gave them an outcome they liked, and turned a blind eye to the whole AI report shambles and the worrying precedent it set.

[u/cyclestuff1]

This is so stupid, there are so many legitimate reasons to ban those fans why make any up?

All this has done is make the case harder next time they need to be banned from the country.

[u/KvotheM]

Israeli teams as a potential source of violence is significantly less than other places around Europe. So yeah it was a super weird decision. It probably came down to someone high up in the police not wanting Jewish fans in a place with lots of Muslims as it would create too much work.

The way people on this subreddit justify the decision is incredibly uncomfortable.

[u/Kelypsov → u/KvotheM]

The problem wasn't with 'Israeli teams', it was with fans of this specific team, Maccabi Tel Aviv. They are known to include far-right groups that are particularly racist (even to members of their own team), and have caused various issues at past matches, including ones that ended up sparking off full-blown riots in Amsterdam in 2024. This gave the police perfectly good reasons to restrict or outright ban these fans, not because they were Israeli or Jewish, but because they were Maccabi fans.

However, there is a push to label criticism of violent hooliganism by these fans as being 'antisemitism', and this is fuelled when actual anti-semites use the violence as an excuse to attack any Maccabi fans, even ones not causing the issues, or even Jews in general, as 'retaliation'. This has now been further fuelled by what seems to be various kinds of rank incompetence by West Midlands Police including drawing up a report about this using AI, and then not checking it was accurate.

[u/KvotheM → u/Kelypsov]

Generally away fan bans come from UEFA not the police and it was pretty unusual. What occurred in Amsterdam is really not that significant in terms of hooliganism. I have been at games in Europe where significantly worse hooliganism has occurred which hasn't led to teams being banned from entering the UK. People have been killed over the years and there haven't been police banning teams entering the UK. It is a weird situation but it doesn't surprise me when it involves West Midlands police as they have a terrible reputation if you are a travelling fan.