The chief constable of West Midlands Police retired from the force on Friday as a result of his involvement in the Maccabi Tel Aviv ban scandal.
CC Craig Guildford, who has served with the force since December 2022, announced he came to the conclusion that the “political and media frenzy around myself and my position has become detrimental to all the great work undertaken by my officers and staff in serving communities across the West Midlands.”
He added that retirement is in the best interests of the organization, himself, and his family. However, he offered no apology for the erroneous policing of the Maccabi match, which has come to light over the last few months, and instead commended his force for its work.
“It has been the honor of my career serving as the chief constable of West Midlands Police,” he added. Had he not resigned, Guildford faced being fired at a meeting on January 27 with Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster.
The saga began in 2025, after West Midlands Police decided to ban Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending an away match against Aston Villa on November 6. The intelligence report on which the decision was based claimed that Israeli fans were violent and may cause disorder to locals.
However, multiple discrepancies were soon discovered in the report, leading to three WMP officers being called to testify in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee at the start of December. During this, the officers were grilled on multiple falsities, including the claim of a previous riotous match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which never happened.
Following this committee, many other claims in the report were shown to be inaccurate, including that the Dutch police response to a Maccabi vs Ajax match saw 5,000 officers deployed over a number of days, and the accusation that 500-600 Maccabi fans targeted Muslim members of the public in Amsterdam.
WMP’s assistant constable, Mike O’Hara, was also forced to apologize to the Jewish community after it was revealed he falsely claimed to have obtained the local Jewish community’s approval before enacting the ban. This was not the case.
Due to the significant doubt shed over the policing, the officers were recalled to testify on January 6. During this session, it came to light that WMP had concealed the fact that the decision to ban was on the basis of protecting Maccabi fans from violent Muslims who were planning to harm them.
Even during a police planning meeting on September 22, it was discussed that “it is clear that there is a growing suggestion of local hostility toward the visitors based on their nationality.” To justify the ban and in the absence of intelligence to support it, the police on October 8 portrayed the Israelis as “uniquely violent” and militaristic.
The hearing also explored concerns about the intelligence provided by WMP to the Security Advisory Group, noting that the SAG can only work based on the confidence of the material put in front of it, and the material was seemingly flawed.
Guilford admitted to use of unverified AI information
In another scandal, Guildford admitted during this second hearing that the inclusion of the made-up West Ham match in the intelligence report was a result of the use of Microsoft Copilot (a form of AI). This contradicted his statements made in the first hearing, where he said AI was never used and the mistake was made by “one individual doing one Google search.”
On Wednesday last week, Guildford emailed the Home Affairs Select Committee to apologize.
That same day, Sir Andy Cooke, chief inspector of Constabulary, released his preliminary report into WMP’s policing of the incident, as requested by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in November 2025. His specific focus was the assessment provided by WMP to Birmingham’s SAG.
Cooke concluded that there was an imbalance in the weight of evidence that WMP presented to Birmingham’s SAG in respect of the previous behavior of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, amounting to “confirmation bias.” He went on to detail the inaccuracies in the intelligence.
Cooke did not, however, find evidence to support a view that antisemitism played any part in WMP stating that its preferred tactical option was to reduce to zero the ticket allocation to Maccabi fans.
Mahmood responded to the report by calling Cooke’s findings “damning” and declaring that the chief constable of WMP no longer had her confidence. Two days later, she welcomed the news of Guildford’s resignation, saying, “By stepping down, Craig Guildford has done the right thing today.” She also acknowledged his years of service.
Not everyone was so complimentary about the news. MP Ayoub Khan, who has been vociferous in his support of WMP and his antipathy to Maccabi, called the process a “witch hunt.”
“Today an honorable man of integrity has been ruthlessly scapegoated,” he said. “This was not accountability, it was a witch hunt.”