If the match isn't safe, why should any fans be allowed to attend. The match should be played in front of an empty stadium?

If Roman was forced to sell? Shouldn't Sawiris also be forced to sell if he condones this?

31 minutes ago, Wearyourblue said:

If the match isn't safe, why should any fans be allowed to attend. The match should be played in front of an empty stadium?

If Roman was forced to sell? Shouldn't Sawiris also be forced to sell if he condones this?

After that Ajax game I don't think any Israeli clubs should be allowed to enter European competitions for 5 years

There is precedent.

Edited October 18, 2025Oct 18 by bisright1

Im not too keen on non european teams entering european competitions.

6 hours ago, bisright1 said:

After that Ajax game I don't think any Israeli clubs should be allowed to enter European competitions for 5 years

There is precedent.

6 hours ago, OTL said:

Im not too keen on non european teams entering european competitions.

To me UEFA agreeing with either of those points is defensible, has some validity and is debatable. But that should be UEFA's call

Aston Villa doing it on their own can be seen as nothing more than anti semitic, and reprehensible, and should result in a ban of European competitions for AV. The only way I wouldn't ban AV for saying no to Israeli fans is if they say no to all fans and play in an empty stadium.

4 hours ago, Wearyourblue said:

To me UEFA agreeing with either of those points is defensible, has some validity and is debatable. But that should be UEFA's call

Aston Villa doing it on their own can be seen as nothing more than anti semitic, and reprehensible, and should result in a ban of European competitions for AV. The only way I wouldn't ban AV for saying no to Israeli fans is if they say no to all fans and play in an empty stadium.

The police, not Villa, made that call.

Wouldn't trust those fans in Birmingham myself either.

I can see this playing out badly, trouble at or around the ground, and or an alternative venue being sought, or even behind closed doors. All bad news for football supporters.

15 hours ago, bisright1 said:

The police, not Villa, made that call.

Wouldn't trust those fans in Birmingham myself either.

Just disagree here, the police can say the situation is unsafe, Villa can and should say then game must be empty of all fans. Either all can attend or none.

51 minutes ago, Wearyourblue said:

Just disagree here, the police can say the situation is unsafe, Villa can and should say then game must be empty of all fans. Either all can attend or none.

Id be mightily f**ked off if the met police said a bunch of fans who had caused a riot the last time they were in a major European city weren't allowed to attend a Chelsea game and then Chelsea said "cool then no Chelsea fan can go".

Tel Aviv derby just got cancelled due to riots. Apparently cancelled by the police, and Maccabi blamed the polices handling of the situation.

I bet our goverment police and media dont know what to do or say now about the villa game.

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by OTL

5 hours ago, OTL said:

Tel Aviv derby just got cancelled due to riots. Apparently cancelled by the police, and Maccabi blamed the polices handling of the situation.

I bet our goverment police and media dont know what to do or say now about the villa game.

Clearly the police over there were just being anti-Semitic.

5 hours ago, OTL said:

Tel Aviv derby just got cancelled due to riots. Apparently cancelled by the police, and Maccabi blamed the polices handling of the situation.

I bet our goverment police and media dont know what to do or say now about the villa game.

Silence from the lot of them today, tweets being deleted.. Now if only Labour were in power when a certain Roman was owner, I wonder if we'd be under new ownership? Just goes to show how politics can and does interfere with sport. The defence of a set of supporters who are known as vile, racist, violent fans by our own politicians, even going as far as to try and get a law passed to enable travel and undermine police sovereignty over European-led intelligence sharing with our police force, is unforgivable and verges close to treason.

2 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Silence from the lot of them today, tweets being deleted.. Now if only Labour were in power when a certain Roman was owner, I wonder if we'd be under new ownership? Just goes to show how politics can and does interfere with sport. The defence of a set of supporters who are known as vile, racist, violent fans by our own politicians, even going as far as to try and get a law passed to enable travel and undermine police sovereignty over European-led intelligence sharing with our police force, is unforgivable and verges close to treason.

I listened to the discussion in the house of commons today led by Lisa Nandy it was a full 5 minutes before the words "Aston Villa" occurred in the debate.

I imagine there will be reports of numerous groups at or near this game

Villa Supporters

Tel Aviv Supporters

Tel Aviv Hooligans

Anti Jewish people

Pro Jewish people

Anti everyone people

apologies to anyone i have forgotten.

On a trivial matter i think Villa should win comfortably, maybe 3-0.

2 hours ago, OTL said:

I listened to the discussion in the house of commons today led by Lisa Nandy it was a full 5 minutes before the words "Aston Villa" occurred in the debate.

Everything has inverted. Good is bad, bad is good. Hooligans good, law abiding citizens bad.

Can we bring Roman back as well while we're here?

Maccabi have decided their fans cannot buy tickets for villa game.

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by OTL

I'm conflicted on this.

I'm all for banning sets of fans from a being allowed to enter a country and attend a game because of reprehensible behaviour, but when has that ever happened in the past? I've seen and heard the worst things from football fans, but never once have I seen an entire fanbase banned from attending a game in this country.

Why now? Why are Celtic fans allowed to attend games in England when they constantly sing pro IRA songs and killing English soldiers? Shouldn't they be treated the same way? You're inviting accusations of anti-Semitism if you're not going to handle these situations equally.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm conflicted on this.

I'm all for banning sets of fans from a being allowed to enter a country and attend a game because of reprehensible behaviour, but when has that ever happened in the past? I've seen and heard the worst things from football fans, but never once have I seen an entire fanbase banned from attending a game in this country.

Why now? Why are Celtic fans allowed to attend games in England when they constantly sing pro IRA songs and killing English soldiers? Shouldn't they be treated the same way? You're inviting accusations of anti-Semitism if you're not going to handle these situations equally.

Maccabis decision.

Earlier this evening there was a debate as to whether the Police or even Aston Villa had broken the law re banning a group of fans. Its a mess.

The game isnt due to take place until early November there could easily be a change to this decision by then.

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by OTL

16 minutes ago, OTL said:

Maccabis decision

They made the decision to ban themselves?

4 hours ago, bluelightening said:

Now if only Labour were in power when a certain Roman was owner, I wonder if we'd be under new ownership? Just goes to show how politics can and does interfere with sport.

It was actually Labour that instigated it! f**king Chris Bryant!

Mail Online

Boris WALKS OUT of Commons as he is challenged over Roman...

The prime minister had told MPs the Chelsea owner was 'already facing sanctions' as he discussed the financial penalties being imposed on Russia following their invasion of Ukraine.

12 minutes ago, OTL said:

This only comes AFTER the fact that they had already been banned from attending. It may be their decision to stop selling tickets, but it wasn't their decision to ban fans from attending.

55 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm conflicted on this.

I'm all for banning sets of fans from a being allowed to enter a country and attend a game because of reprehensible behaviour, but when has that ever happened in the past? I've seen and heard the worst things from football fans, but never once have I seen an entire fanbase banned from attending a game in this country.

Why now? Why are Celtic fans allowed to attend games in England when they constantly sing pro IRA songs and killing English soldiers? Shouldn't they be treated the same way? You're inviting accusations of anti-Semitism if you're not going to handle these situations equally.

Ajax, Feyenood, Barcelona, Frankfurt and obviously every English club in Europe has been banned in the past from attending a game before due to bad behaviour.

It's not about the songs. It's about the violence that goes with the fan base. I don't know why UEFA didn't ban them this time, but it would be a nightmare to police them arriving in a major city with their record and the city having a significant Muslim population.

Regardless of the politics if Chelsea fans started a riot in Amsterdam we'd definitely get a UEFA ban

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by bisright1

7 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

This only comes AFTER the fact that they had already been banned from attending. It may be their decision to stop selling tickets, but it wasn't their decision to ban fans from attending.

sorry i misspoke, it was Maccabis decision to stop selling tickets, you actually mentioned banning fans.😉

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by OTL

Just now, bisright1 said:

Ajax, Feyenood, Barcelona, Frankfurt and obviously every English club in Europe has been banned in the past from attending a game before due to bad behaviour.

I said by our own country. UEFA banning a teams fans and a countries local authorities banning fans is a very different thing.

6 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

It's not about the songs. It's about the violence that goes with the fan base.

If Chelsea did what Maccabi did in Amsterdam, I would be surprised if we weren't banned from travelling.

Maccabi fans do not have the same history of violence like that of Legia fans, yet Legia fans are allowed to attend away games. If we are going to use Amsterdam as an example, something that happened a year ago, then I assume they will be banned from every away game, right? Something tells me that won't be happening. And if we are going to use the violence from a year ago to justify a reason for banning them, then why do we not have a history of doing the same for other clubs? By this logic, every single club that has caused trouble away from home should be banned from attending football matches in England.

Club statement from Maccabi.

We acknowledge the efforts of the UK government and police to ensure both sets of fans can attend the match safely, and are grateful for the messages of support from across the footballing community and society at large.

We as a Club believe that football should be about bringing people together not driving them apart and no one should feel unsafe for simply wanting to come and support their team nor feel any hesitation about being accompanied by family and friends.

We have a strong track record in seeking to bring people together. We have been instrumental in bringing forward footballing talent from around the world irrespective of race or creed. Our first team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide. We have also been working tirelessly to stamp out racism within the more extreme elements of our fan base. Unfortunately, those issues are not restricted to Israeli football, and they are problems the sport has been grappling worldwide including in the UK.

It is clear, that various entrenched groups seek to malign the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan base, most of whom have no truck with racism or hooliganism of any kind, and are exploiting isolated incidents for their own social and political ends. The latest example is by people who have rushed to attribute to our fans the decision of the Tel Aviv police to cancel our derby match yesterday. It was not. It is easier to believe than to enquire especially when it suites an agenda. Our fans regularly travel all over Europe without incident and to suggest that the reason our fans cannot be allowed to travel is due to their behavior is an attempt to distort reality and to excuse the real underlying reasons for the decision to ban our fans. Our fans, the Jewish community know all too well this tactic and all are too familiar with where it can lead. 

We are also concerned about the intervention of divisive figures who do not represent the values of our Club. We condemn all abhorrent views that have no place in football.

As a result of the hate-filled falsehoods, a toxic atmosphere has been created which makes the safety of our fans wishing to attend very much in doubt. Inflammatory rhetoric, trafficking in half-truths is never healthy, but in this particular case the remarks being generated are of the most concerning variety. Not for Maccabi Tel Aviv or football, but for the sake of society and its underlying values, maybe the agendas involved here should be looked at more closely.

The wellbeing and safety of our fans is paramount and from hard lessons learned, we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context.

We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.

Edited October 20, 2025Oct 20 by OTL