st albans fox

for whatever reason, political Islamism is massively over represented in terrorism in some parts of the world. That is absolutely not Islam. However, with the massive number of Muslims around the world, it’s inevitable that any fringe extremism (which exists around all religions) will amount to a significant number of people. that not the fault of the religion - its just maths and human nature. as mickey pointed out a week or two ago, Islam is a very broad church with even different parts of different nationalities being quite spread in their interpretations. And that’s before you get into Shia/sunni! Laying general blame for anything (especially something as huge as this) at the door of one religion is very lazy and pretty ignorant.

Are the opponents more experienced ? I’ve no idea if we’re more prone than other academies to losing decent leads. Maybe it’s just a ‘kids’ football thing ( mind you, our first team have done it before too!)

Maybe they’ve got a load of shirts left over from last season with bc game on them - has anyone checked they’re the new shirts ??

Anyway moving onto the next thing bong andy no longer Duke of York

I think the threat comes away from the ground I don’t think banning home fans aswell makes any difference to their safety

I’m just referring to the law and process I don’t speak Hebrew - I don’t know what they’re actually chanting. if it’s true then it’s ugly and inexcusable. I would add that football fans anround the world (including these shores) are known to chant some pretty grim stuff from time to time. What examples are there over the years where a whole group of fans have been banned for what some have chanted ? My point was simple - uefa are not usually slow at throwing charges at clubs. WMP are entitled to ban them on the basis of public safety - I’d like them to make it clear what the reasons are. at the movement, many different groups are saying it’s for several different reasons. at the moment I’m not clear whether these fans are being excluded for the safety of our fans or them.

I’d be cautious about translations of chants in different languages. I think the issue here is that Maccabi fans haven’t been banned by UEFA. Why not ? Either they’re guilty of things that lead to such a sanction or they’re not. Someone mentioned Frankfurt fans being banned from the Napoli game next month. That is not a uefa decision. It’s from the Naples mayor based on the fights at a previous game between the two clubs. I suppose the difference here is the Villa fans not being involved.

For clarity, the Jew hunt was pre organised. The aggro and unpleasant chanting from MTA creates a background of ‘two sides to this’ for those who want to debate it. I can only assume that WMP have intelligence that something similar is possible in Birmingham.

They do have form for some unpleasant anti Arab chants. (has anyone studied unpleasant football fan chants from around the world ? there must be some grim ones - are clubs banned for them? ) it’s up to uefa to bring charges and bans upon clubs for their behaviour. This is not that. The police are stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

That’s too philosophical for me Mac. Not totally clear what you mean but surely no country is using a nuclear weapon unless the actual existence of it is being unarguably called into question by an attack upon it. (Or it is attacked by a nuclear weapon itself)

I doubt it’s anything like this But it’s usually the away fans being banned for their behaviour. This seems to be based primarily upon the safety of the away fans not able to be guaranteed.

He certainly has a nack for it whether that’s because of his principles - I’m not convinced

I agree in part with this. Because various groups pressed for away fans to be banned on the grounds that Israelis aren’t welcome in Birmingham and Israeli teams should be banned in general, they are now shouting this as a win and that their opinion is validated - the evidence for it hasn’t been effectively published by the group who have made the decision. They should have come out and said that because of the large number of officers required to ensure safety for the MTA offices and players, that there was sufficient intelligence that MTA fans may not be safe, that it was decided in the interests of elf and safety of travelling fans, that they be barred.

That was tit for tat away fan bans. I understand you bringing it up but it’s not the same. I do appreciate that this game in Birmingham is a possible power keg both on the ground and also politically. I don’t believe that the police would have an issue taking in a group of fans from the airport and ensuring their security. The problem comes with those fans who will not arrive on planned club travel and are looking for trouble. Will they come anyway ??? I guess the police feel they could manage that if they weren’t also looking after a 1000 law abiding people who are not looking for trouble. (This is a problem btw - that a 1000 law abiding people cannot be assumed to be safe on the streets of the U.K’s second city). Either way, it’s a precedent for banning away fans on the basis that there may be aggro. Yes there are extenuating circumstances regarding the demographic of the Birmingham community but you will nearly always find angles on things to back up your narrative if you look hard enough. On balance, it doesn’t sit well with me.

they have a quite unpleasant element amongst them but if that were the basis for banning fans then most games would be home fans only. From what I’ve heard, it’s to do with the west mids police being of the opinion that they cannot be confident of securing the safety of the maccabi fans. That seems a pretty worrying place for us to be. Surely the numbers could be controlled at a level where they could be ??

It’s not been denied - it was basically accepted by them on a an x post Thankfully masses of aid (including tents and blankets) are now entering each day and most importantly, being distributed

Not certain but I doubt Egypt is a signatory autocracies generally aren’t keen on that type of thing

Now not going excuse that it’s a Jewish holiday this evening that’s true but he’s not very religious I reckon some of the leaders said that if he turned up then they’d not be able to attend.

The national trauma surrounding this isn’t something that nearly all westerners can relate to. Not sure why it seems odd. Agree that it doesn’t need to be broadcast in such detail but media have chosen to do so (including Al Jazeera). netenyahu is apparently now travelling to Egypt later. I’d be tied to trump if I were him. And how can the Spanish PM bring himself to be in the same room given what he’s said?? The same is true of erdogan and other regional leaders. This is trump trying to bully everyone into agreements. the visuals could be well worth waiting for.

One step further all living hostages handed over to ICRC 2000 prisoners/detainees to go home to Gaza/West Bank today and then it’s the dead hostages which will no doubt take some time. trump revelling in the limelight. (Is this orchestrated to the level that trump can announce ‘all the living hostages are inside Israel’ during his speech ? )

And unused sub as Ghana won 1-0 to qualify for the World Cup

I was always surprised that he was selected

Not selected

He was still nominated - I mean it’s clearly ridiculous to present evidence that occurred after the nomination was submitted. clear that he should have been pushing for next year and they’ve screwed up big time by pushing for him to get it this year. They’ve upset the committee and a lot could happen between now and next autumn to cause him to not get it.

Have to laugh mate no other way to cope with it !