Previously we looked at BBC Sport and BBC News website reporting in the run-up to the November 6th UEFA Aston Villa-Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture in Birmingham.
BBC NEWS AND BBC SPORT FRAMING OF THE BIRMINGHAM FOOTBALL MATCH STORY – PART ONE
As noted, that coverage continued to promote talking points also seen in earlier reporting:
- Distorted portrayals of the November 20204 attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam
- Promotion of a misleading BBC Sport report about the cancellation of a football match in Tel Aviv
- Uncritical promotion of the partisan viewpoints of a Birmingham MP and additional UK politicians
- Failure to adequately inform on the issue of the politically motivated campaigns seeking to influence the scheduled fixture
However, as the match approached, promotion of that framing continued but new themes were also introduced into the BBC’s coverage, including repeated promotion of the West Midlands branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other anti-Israel groups, further citation of a non-transparent Guardian report and gratuitous amplification of the ‘genocide’ libel.
BBC Sport website:
“Fan ban ‘incredibly sad’ – Maccabi Tel Aviv chief” Dan Roan and Bobbie Jackson, 5th November 2025
“West Midlands Police said its high-risk assessment of the fixture was “based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Uefa Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam”.
Last month’s Tel Aviv derby was called off by police amid disorder, heightening safety concerns, but Angelides insisted his club’s fans were not to blame. When asked why he felt they had been banned from the match at Villa Park, he said, “I have no idea because it has never been fully reported. […]
A coalition of six pro-Palestinian organisations are planning to be outside Villa Park on Thursday to protest against the match going ahead.
Nayeem Malik, chair of West Midlands Palestinian Solidarity, said the organisation has put out a national call for people to turn up and hope to have between 20,000 and 50,000 protesters attending.
“Maccabi Tel Aviv should not be playing anywhere in the international arena,” Malik told BBC Sport.
“We have had a lot of demonstrations for Palestine in this city and they have all been very peaceful.
“Our campaign is that Israel should be boycotted in all sports and that’s whether they play with or without fans.””
That BBC Sport report also includes a video titled “Villa Park Fan Ban Explained” in which viewers are told that:
“There have been issues with their fans…A report by Kick It Out Israel found that Maccabi fans are the most likely to engage in discriminatory behaviour.”
The Times of Israel’s coverage of that report notes that: [emphasis added]
“In Europe, Kick It Out, an English nonprofit fighting racism in soccer, found that discrimination has been rising steadily in recent years. It recorded nearly 1,400 incidents targeting any group in the 2024/25 season, a record high and more than double the number of reports four seasons earlier.
The Fare Network, another anti-discrimination group, recently said that racist abuse hurled at Black players had doubled in the early weeks of the current season.
In Israel, racist chants rose 64% during the 2024-25 season, according to Kick It Out Israel, which is not directly affiliated with the UK organization of the same name.
According to a report it published at the end of the 2024-2025 campaign, the organization counted 367 racist chants over the course of the season. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were responsible for 118 of these, while Beitar Jerusalem, often referred to as Israel’s most racist team, came in second with 115.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Maccabi is more racist than Beitar, noted Kick It Out Israel director Matan Segal.
“Our approach is based on the understanding that we never hear everything that happens in the stands, so the numbers themselves don’t tell the whole story,” Segal said. In other words, the significance of the survey is the overall trend, not the data itself, he clarified.
Tensions related to the Gaza war were a factor contributing to the overall rise, Segal pointed out. The most frequently heard chant was: “Let the IDF win, f* the Arabs,” which was recorded 73 times over the season, while others called individual players “terrorists.”” [emphasis added]
BBC Sport’s video also promotes partial accounts of the events in Amsterdam last year and the Tel Aviv derby match cancellation, citing that as justification for unidentified “others” who “said that they were understandably nervous about some of Maccabi’s supporters”.
The video’s narrator, Dan Roan, goes on to tell viewers that:
“A United Nations Commission of Inquiry said Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza.”
Roan has nothing to tell his viewers about the problematic nature of that commission and its report before going on:
“…and then the UN themselves called on UEFA and FIFA to ban the national team from competitions.”
That call was actually put out by a number of UN special rapporteurs – who are not UN employees – including Francesca Albanese, who has a record of antisemitism and has been condemned – among others – by her own country’s representative at the UN.
Roan presents the story as involving the police, politicians and fans but has little to tell BBC audiences about the political campaigns behind it, other than a brief reference to a petition organised by Birmingham MP Ayoub Khan and Jeremy Corbyn.
The same video appears in another BBC Sport report:
“No away fans, protests and 700 police – Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv explained” Dale Johnson, 5th November 2025
“For Thursday’s match, the SAG had to take into account a number of considerations, including an assessment from West Midlands Police which classified the fixture as high-risk. That resulted in Maccabi fans being blocked from attending the game.
Police said the decision was “based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including violent clashes and hate crime offences that occurred during the 2024 Uefa Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Amsterdam”. […]
Planned protests at the stadium include one by pro-Palestinian groups, who want the match to be called off. Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Kashmir solidarity campaign and Palestinian Forum in Britain have jointly organised the protest.”
Notably, BBC Sport had nothing to tell its audiences about the records, agendas and affiliations of any of those “pro-Palestinian groups”.
BBC News website:
“Hundreds of officers to police Villa-Maccabi match” Tanya Gupta, 3rd November 2025
“Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Kashmir solidarity campaign and Palestinian Forum in Britain have called for the match to be cancelled and jointly organised the protest. […]
Naeem Malik, chair of West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said there had been national outrage over the hosting of the Israeli team.
“The calls to cancel this match have been ignored despite the risks that it carries, therefore we must urge activists to unite in protest against this match,” he said.
He claimed the Israeli side had been “directly involved in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”, because the club was involved in Israel’s infrastructure in the occupied West Bank.
In September, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with reasonable grounds to conclude four out of five genocidal acts had been carried out. […]
When the ban was imposed, it emerged West Midlands Police had classified the fixture “high risk”, citing “violent clashes and hate crime offences” during a November 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Amsterdam.
Groups planning to stage protests this Thursday also highlighted events in Amsterdam and said behaviour caught on camera and posted on social media included anti-Palestinian chants, racial slurs, and damage to infrastructure.
Abu Umaymah, from the Palestine Academy, said it was unacceptable the match was going ahead not only because of team was “complicit in the ongoing genocide“, but also the “racist behaviour of the team’s fans”.
He said: “It is not enough that the fans are not allowed to attend this match.”
Remarkably, the BBC had nothing to tell readers about the political agenda of “the Palestine Academy” or the record – including arrest – of its quoted representative. 
“MPs quiz police over Maccabi-Villa match fan ban” Tanya Gupta 5th November 2025
“After the ban was imposed, it emerged WMP had classified the fixture “high risk”, citing “violent clashes and hate crime offences” during a November 2024 Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Amsterdam.”
“Arrests as hundreds protest at Villa-Maccabi match” Phil Mackie and Tanya Gupta, originally appeared on 6th November 2025, updated 7th November.
“Aston Villa announced last month no Maccabi Tel Aviv fans could travel at the match, a decision made by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group following intelligence from West Midlands Police.
The Guardian reported the force’s intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club, with scores of fans connected to a past history of violence and shouting “racist taunts” likely to travel to Birmingham. […]
Ch Supt Joyce, Birmingham’s police commander, said police had prepared for the possibility of people turning up looking for a fight.
He told Sky News that “significant levels of hooliganism” among the Maccabi fan base was the reason for the ban. […]
As plans for protests were drawn up earlier in the week, Naeem Malik, chair of West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said there had been national outrage over the hosting of the Israeli team.
“The calls to cancel this match have been ignored despite the risks that it carries, therefore we must urge activists to unite in protest against this match,” he said.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Kashmir solidarity campaign and Palestinian Forum in Britain had called for the match to be cancelled and jointly organised one of the protests.
Independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan, was among the most vocal opponents of the game taking place and attended a demonstration outside Villa Park, leading a chant of Free, Free Palestine.
“We have a very diverse community here, we have children here, families that have come out to support the plight of the Palestinians,” he said.
“We have shown that we are a welcoming community, that we want to support footballers but we don’t support hooligans, and we don’t support genocide.”
In September, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with reasonable grounds to conclude four out of five genocidal acts had been carried out.”
“Maccabi fan ban was due to hooliganism, say police” Phil Mackie and Rachel Russell, 7th November 2025
“West Midlands Police has defended keeping silent over the “significant hooliganism” among Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, which it now confirms is the reason they were banned from attending the Europa League clash with Aston Villa. […]
Shortly before the game, Ch Insp Tom Joyce said it was due to an “assessment of the risk that was coming from admitting travelling fans”.”
Towards the end of that report, readers find a quote from a minister who later commented again on what she had read in that risk assessment.
“Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy claimed the police’s risk assessment was “based in no small part on the risk posed to those fans that are attending to support Maccabi Tel Aviv because they are Israeli and because they are Jewish”.”
Notably, neither of those two BBC reports now dated November 7th has much to tell readers about events on the day of the match beyond some unhelpful arrest statistics.
“Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the stadium, waving flags and banners calling for an end to violence in Gaza.
A counter-protest by pro-Israeli campaigners marched down a road outside Villa Park. Five flatbed vehicles were also driven past the ground prior to kick-off, carrying electronic billboards showing messages opposing antisemitism.”
“Despite some minor scuffles as the remaining Villa fans went into the ground, West Midlands Police said the night had “passed without major incident, with no serious disorder and no disruption to the game”.
Ten people were arrested, including some for racially aggravated abuse towards both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups.”
The appearance of anti-Israel posters put up by a highly problematic group does not get a mention from the BBC. Neither do the insults and death chants or the herding of pro-Israel supporters into a fenced enclosure. Despite having repeatedly quoted and promoted the chair of the West Midlands branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the BBC had nothing to tell its audience about that group’s efforts to search for and “obstruct” the Maccabi Tel Aviv players.
Of course, had the BBC devoted slightly less of the word-count in its various reports to the amplification of a politically motivated and methodologically unsound report promoting the ‘genocide’ libel, it may well have found the space to tell its funding public what actually did happen in Birmingham – and why.
Related Articles:
BBC PROMOTES A NARRATIVE USING MISLEADING PORTRAYALS OF AMSTERDAM ATTACKS
BBC NEWS JUMPS ON THE ‘GENOCIDE’ BANDWAGON ONCE AGAIN
BBC NEWS AND BBC SPORT FRAMING OF THE BIRMINGHAM FOOTBALL MATCH STORY – PART ONE
