UK government looking for way to circumvent ban on Israeli soccer fans attending Aston Villa match

The UK’s culture secretary is looking into reversing a decision by the Aston Villa soccer club to bar Israeli fans from attending its match against Maccabi Tel Aviv next month, Science and Technology Minister Ian Murray says in a round of interviews with British news outlets.

The club said yesterday that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans would not be allowed to attend due to security concerns. The announcement drew condemnation from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as from the leaders of the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and Reform UK.

It was welcomed, however, by independent MP Ayoub Khan, who had campaigned for the match against the Israeli team to be canceled.

Murray tells Sky News that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy will meet with Home Office officials later today “to see if there’s a way through” the ban, which he says is “completely and utterly unacceptable.”

He acknowledges, however, that it may not be possible to override the ban if it becomes “an operational issue for the police.”

According to the BBC, the UK’s West Midlands Police supports the ban on Maccabi fans attending the game, due to concerns that there will be a repeat of the “violent clashes and hate crime offenses that occurred during the 2024 UEFA Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam.”

Still, Murray tells Sky News that the UK “can’t allow this (the ban) to happen.”

“We can’t allow a country to become a place where we’re excluding people from public events,” he says.

Separately, he tells the BBC that the ban is “the wrong decision in terms of antisemitism but it also [sends] the wrong message to the entire country — that you would be banned from going to public events if you’re of the wrong race, religion or creed.”