What led to the downfall of West Midlands Police chief goes beyond football

What led to the downfall of the chief of West Midlands Police goes beyond a football match and the exclusion of a fan base.

It is a scandal that exposed skewed approaches while navigating the complexities and sensitivities of policing the ripples of the Israel-Gaza war and inflamed tensions in Birmingham. And above all, it laid bare how one of the country's leading police forces mishandled intelligence, neglected the discrimination faced by a minority community, and repeatedly misled security meetings, the public and MPs.

It led to three apologies from West Midlands Police (WMP) before the resignation of chief constable Craig Guildford on Friday, after losing the confidence of the government and the local council leader. There was evasiveness from the moment WMP went public with the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in mid-October, having had since August to prepare for the match against Aston Villa.

They couldn't immediately tell me whether it was imposed because of the threat posed by the Israelis or to the Israelis in Birmingham, with its strong contingent of pro-Palestinian activism. It took three weeks to provide answers denouncing Israelis as being too dangerous to allow into Villa Park, which became central to the multiple investigations that forced out Mr Guildford.

What chief superintendent Tom Joyce told me remains the only interview in which WMP explained the need to exclude Maccabi fans from the Europa League match on 6 November. The key context was this: Maccabi went into the match without any pending or recent sanctions for fan misconduct by UEFA - the competition organisers who usually impose fan bans.

But a section of the Maccabi fan base was filmed engaging in violence in Amsterdam in 2024 and chanting anti-Palestinian racist abuse. That required WMP to contact their Dutch counterparts, who also informed them of the antisemitic violence by locals in Amsterdam, hunting down and kicking Maccabi supporters, leading to the only five convictions.

Maccabi CEO Jack Angelides did admit to Sky News: "There are elements in the club that are not in line with our values, our morals." But he was furious at "falsehoods" being peddled while lacking an explanation from the police for the ban. It came from Mr Joyce telling Sky News: "It is exclusively a decision we made on the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans." He revealed that while the "threat" to Maccabi fans was a "consideration.