Tel Aviv football team says it is working to ‘stamp out racism’ among its fan base.
Published On 21 Oct 2025
Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv has said it will turn down any tickets offered to its fans for a match in the United Kingdom, even if an earlier decision by local officials to bar the team’s followers from attending is reversed.
Maccabi Tel Aviv said on Monday that “hard lessons learned” meant it had decided to decline any offer of tickets for the Europa League game against Aston Villa.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items
- list 1 of 4Far-right Israeli football fans set off pyrotechnics in Latvia’s capital
- list 2 of 4‘Ban Israeli football’: Scholars urge UEFA to bar Israel over Gaza horrors
- list 3 of 4Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans barred from Europa League game in UK
- list 4 of 4UK police under pressure to end ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans
end of list
“The wellbeing and safety of our fans is paramount,” the team said in a statement posted online. “Our decision should be understood in that context.”
The club also said it had been working to “stamp out racism” within the “more extreme elements” of its fan base.
“Our first-team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide,” it said.
The team’s decision came a day after Israeli police cancelled a match between Maccabi and its rival Tel Aviv team Hapoel before kickoff over what they described as “public disorder and violent riots”.
The move by Israeli authorities to cancel the game stood in contrast with criticism by British and Israeli leaders of Birmingham City’s decision to ban Maccabi fans from the November 6 match at Villa Park in Birmingham, central England.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the ban by the city’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) “the wrong decision”, while Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar called for the “shameful” and “coward decision” to be reversed.
The UK government said on Friday that it was working to override local authorities to allow Israeli fans to be present.
But after Israeli police shut down the match between Tel Aviv teams on Sunday, some UK politicians questioned whether the government should intervene in Birmingham.
“To Keir Starmer and others who tried to make this about religion! Here’s more evi