The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has issued urgent calls for accountability following mounting evidence that the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending the Europa League match against Aston Villa at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK, on 6 November was unjustified, inconsistent, and discriminatory.
In two formal letters sent yesterday, Shannon Seban, Director of European Affairs at CAM, raised serious concerns with senior government and local authority figures over the conduct of West Midlands Police and its Chief Constable, Craig Guildford. In a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Seban warned that the ban was not based on clear or credible intelligence, but rather on shifting explanations that failed to withstand parliamentary scrutiny, and called for his resignation.
Senior West Midlands Police officers were questioned this week by a cross-party parliamentary committee, where Members of Parliament challenged the force’s assertion that the ban was “based on safety.” Committee members noted that the intelligence cited by police appeared “one-sided” and exaggerated the threat posed by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters, while downplaying or omitting other critical factors.
Crucially, subsequent media revelations have shown that police were aware prior to the match that local extremist elements were considering violent action against Israeli fans. Rather than confronting those threats directly, the police opted to exclude the targeted group from the event altogether. This context, Seban wrote, was concealed from the public at the time of the decision and later “whitewashed” from official explanations .
In a second letter, co-signed with Birmingham City Councillor Alex Yip JP and addressed to Councillor J. Tennant, Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community Safety and Equalities, Seban called for an urgent meeting of the city’s CONTEST board, the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism strategy. The letter warns that reports of local groups preparing to arm themselves against visiting Israeli supporters represent a grave security concern that demands full transparency and action, not denial or deflection
“The message this episode sends is profoundly disturbing,” Seban said. “When credible anti-Semitic threats emerged, the response was not to confront those threatening violence, but to restrict Jewish presence. That is a failure of impartial policing and a dangerous precedent.”
Seban also highlighted the false claim that the local Jewish community supported the ban, an assertion that has since been formally denied by the Chair of the Birmingham and West Midlands Jewish Community, raising further concerns about misrepresentation and trust.
CAM has joined growing calls from MPs, councilors, and Jewish organizations for Chief Constable Craig Guildford to resign. The organization has urged the Home Secretary to intervene should he refuse, stressing that public confidence in policing depends on neutrality, transparency, and the equal protection of all communities.
“A democracy cannot accept a situation where threats of anti-Semitic violence are met by excluding Jews rather than stopping those who threaten them,” Seban added. “This case must be fully examined, and accountability must follow.”