| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... 12:47 - Oct 17 with 1956 views | 1885_SFC |
from coming to see their team play at Aston Villa.
WTF is that all about?
At worse, Villa should face the consequences of this decision and the match should be played behind closed doors. At best - let them come of course. |  |
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| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... on 12:39 - Oct 20 with 171 views | saint901 |
It is difficult not to agree with the various views above (including Mr JB) that religion has been used as a convenient power base for those people seeking said power.
Pretty much every religion can be shown to at some point or other, to have been corrupted by those seeking temporal authority.
We see it in the USA where "fundamentalist" christian sects seek to influence politics despite their constitution being very clear that state and religion are separate.
We see countries - or perhaps more accurately peoples - who follow a particular branch of Islam, use their interpretation of "holy" writings to control populations.
Faith - by which I mean a personal belief in some form of supernatural force - benign or otherwise, is different. |  | | |
| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... on 12:42 - Oct 20 with 166 views | Heisenberg |
| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... on 11:15 - Oct 20 by saint901 |
There is an element in the Maacabi fan base that either is or appears to be as much politically motivated as it is by football. This contingent of "ultras" has form for whipping up trouble not only in away games in Europe but for "home" games against local opposition. See the events at the attempts to play a derby game last weekend which was eventually cancelled due to their (and the oppositions) behaviour.
The appearances in Europe to date have not been incident free - see the match in Amsterdam which before and after the match saw violence on the streets.
Whatever your position on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, reflecting that on the supporters of a football club is probably a bit immature and facile.
However, reacting to the potential for a situation to rapidly get out of hand, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to contain, perhaps risking inflaming local and national tensions and potentially injuring those policing the event as well as "innocent" bystanders, is a no more than taking sensible precautions.
In my view, the initiative should be put on the Maacabi club to vet and manage their supporters going to the match and it is for them to arrange safe transport in and out as well as being responsible for say half the cost of policing it.
If UEFA admit clubs with known violent followers, than again, they should be managing that and footing the bill.
I think Frankfurt are playing in Italy this week and are also known to have a faction prone to violence. The Italian authorities (government) has suspended the Schenegan arrangement for 48 hours in order to be able to prevent Frankfurt fans from getting into Italy. The UK allegedly controls its own borders, so we could do that?
As for the Villa game, I would support a ban on away fans simply on the grounds of their potential to cause a civil disturbance. |
The issue is the Independent Safety Advisory Group based the decision to ban Tel Aviv fans from attending the game on several factors. Intelligence received, heightened tensions and that Aston has a huge Asian population all played a part in what was a sensible decision to protect fans and local communities. That Starmer and Badenoch steamed in calling the decision anti semitic shows how inept they are. |  |
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| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... on 13:02 - Oct 20 with 143 views | 1885_SFC |
| Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned... on 12:42 - Oct 20 by Heisenberg |
The issue is the Independent Safety Advisory Group based the decision to ban Tel Aviv fans from attending the game on several factors. Intelligence received, heightened tensions and that Aston has a huge Asian population all played a part in what was a sensible decision to protect fans and local communities. That Starmer and Badenoch steamed in calling the decision anti semitic shows how inept they are. |
"Aston has a huge Asian population..."
That there is no reason whatsoever to ban Jewish fans from attending. As with all clubs, not all fans are going to be violent thugs. I would imagine the vast majority are decent people.
Reports out today say that the Villa stewards were told they do not have to attend this game if they do not wish - and that offer was issued by the club before the ban on away fans was announced. | |
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