ClaphamFox

The point is that every season foreign clubs visit this country for UEFA competitions and bring with them fanbases that have historically shown themselves to be 'no angels'—many with far worse track records than Maccabi fans. Yet nobody ever seems to talk about banning them. So why were Maccabi fans singled out? They were singled out because of the threat to their safety by elements of the local Muslim population. The police did not want to admit this, so they tried to pin it on the 'risk' the Israeli fans posed, and did so in a very disingenuous way. Hence the flak they're getting now.

Prior to Maccabi fans being banned, no UK police force had banned a foreign club's fans from attending a UEFA game in this country. So the decision by West Midlands police was completely unprecedented in the UK. Are you seriously suggesting that Maccabi fans posed a level of risk that demonstrably exceeded that posed by the fans of every other club that has visited these islands in the past? If so I'd love to see your evidence. The fact is—as we all know—that the decision had nothing whatsoever to do with the threat of hooliganism from Maccabi Haifa fans. What actually happened was that West Midlands police decided on the ban after speaking to Muslims in the area but were aware that they couldn’t admit to this, so came up with the ruse of trying to blame it on the Maccabi fans instead. And because there was no evidence to justify the decision, they made some up. It would have been better if they’d have been honest from the start and admitted that they were terrified of threats made by Islamic extremists and were not confident in their ability to guarantee the safety of Maccabi fans. Admitting this would have made them look weak and would have no doubt attracted a lot of criticism, but at least it would have spared them the indignity of being exposed as liars. Now they’ve been shown to be weak and dishonest. The chief constable will almost certainly lose his job over this, as he should. But there needs to measures put in place to ensure that no UK police force acts like this again. It was a very serious mistake.

Ok then. Prior to the Maccabi ban, how many times has a UK police force banned fans of an overseas club from attending a UEFA game in this country? Your comment implies it is a regular occurrence, so I assume you can name a few examples. And how on earth do you know how people who opposed this ban would react if fans of another club were banned? Have you asked them all?

Well Mahmood has spoken and her comments are pretty damning. She says the police "overstated the threat posed by the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, while understating the risk that was posed to the Israeli fans if they travelled to the area". She's also called the decision to ban Maccabi fans "grossly misguided" and said she no longer has confidence in Chief Constable Guildford. She also reckons she's going to restore the power of the home secretary to sack chief constables.

It turns out the record of their previous behaviour is also unclear. West Midlands police cited trouble in Amsterdam between Ajax and Maccabi fans as a reason for banning the latter, but the BBC is now reporting that Dutch police are contradicting the claims from West Midlands about Maccabi fans' behaviour. So it seems even the stuff about them having 'caused bother' in the past has been deliberately exaggerated—possibly even fabricated—by West Midlands police.

You might think, eh? The details emerging about the way the West Midlands police handled this issue are staggering to behold. They basically just caved into local extremists who didn't want Jews in the area, then blamed the decision on the Jews using fabricated evidence. Very curious to see what Shabana Mahmood has to say about it in her statement...

Yes - was around 11am last year I think.

If 24/25 is deemed to be within PL’s jurisdiction, we will find out tomorrow. If it‘s within the EFL’s remit, we might not find out for a while.

I’d have to disagree. He doesn’t get everything right, but he gets a lot right. I’d love to be able to dismiss his opinion as meaningless, but I’m not sure that I can.

Borson thinks we’ve breached again but it may be a matter for the EFL rather than the PL. Either way, he thinks another charge is coming.

He's not gone anywhere yet...

I think in Belgium if somebody calls you a 'Renoir', it is invariably sarcastic and is intended to suggest you are unattractive—ie, no oil painting.

They are real, and Iran was a very different place in the 70s. The reason it is portrayed as a bad place now is because since the 1979 revolution it has become a deeply authoritarian Islamic theocracy with little to no regard for human rights or freedoms. Authoritarian theocracies are inherently unstable because large chunks of their population will always want more freedom, hence they will always be reliant on violence to maintain the status quo—which is exactly what is happening in Iran now. The IRGC are savages who are capable of murdering hundreds of thousand of Iranians if they feel it's necessary to preserve the republic Your perception of Israel may not influence your view of events in Iran, but that is definitely not the case for many on the left. I've just seen a tweet from Zarah Sultana in which she offered tacit sympathy for the Iranians that have been murdered in the past few days before immediately pivoting to an anti-UK, anti-US and anti-Israel rant. Yes, Zarah is completely bonkers but she's not alone in her stance on this.

Early contender for post of the year.

Not a chance Saturday’s result will affect his position.

The Mail journalist who made up this story upon glancing at this thread…

When it comes to reasons to be pissed off with the club, our cup runneth over at the moment. But getting angry at them because of clearly fake rumours they have no control over seems a little unfair.

I can't decide what's more depressing—the fact that some people believe this clearly made-up rumour, or the fact that we've fallen so far that this made-up rumour is plausible enough for some people to believe it.

They were, and rightly so. It's a bit daft for a club's social media to be posting about former player's birthdays. Hence presumably why the stopped doing it six months ago.

It looks like the last former player’s birthday we mentioned on social media was Ulloa last July. Since then a number of current players have been wished a happy birthday, but no former ones. So maybe there’s just been a change in policy.

I get the feeling that deep his aversion to living away from his beloved London will mysteriously disappear if Seville come calling.

He’s looked in need of a rest for quite a while. That’s all it is.

I suspect another factor is the fact that this is the first time a case like this is being held across jurisdictions (ie, we were charged by the PL but are currently in the EFL). As our case will set the precedent for future cross-jurisdiction cases, the independent commission will likely want to make its judgment as detailed and watertight as possible (especially given our propensity to robustly appeal judgments we don't like), which will add time. The commission will want to avoid a punishment that can be easily challenged and overturned, which will embarrass the system and create more issues. I'm leaning towards the view that the commission will uphold that we've breached but be very cautious with the punishment, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part...

The club underwent two significant changes in the years following the title win: first, Khun Vichai tragically lost his life in the helicopter crash and control of the club passed onto Top; and second, the men's team switched from Belvoir Drive to Seagrave. I suspect many of those who blame our decline on the latter do so because they are deeply reluctant to blame it on the former. Social media is full of Leicester fans who still absolutely won't hear a word against Top or the King Power group because of the title win. They do not seem to understand that without Khun Vichai, King Power is a a million miles away from the company it was when he was alive.