West Midlands Police has been accused of orchestrating a cover up after leaked internal command documents revealed officers recorded threats from “Asian youths looking to fight” in the build-up to the Maccabi Tel Aviv match against Aston Villa.
The heavily redacted Silver Command logs showed reports of escalating threats around the Europa League fixture in November, where visiting fans were banned from attending.
These reports appear to have been suppressed while the force simultaneously crafted social media messaging that described the day as “largely peaceful”.
According to the documents, officers observed “masked-up” groups of males moving toward Villa Park on match day.
Yet the same records demonstrate that police planned public communications designed to “dampen down any online sentiment and prevent this being over-dramatised.”
Troubling reports were first logged at 6am, with sightings of locals across the street from Maccabi Tel Aviv’s accommodation, recording footage and taking pictures.
By mid-morning, concerns escalated when the coach driver reported around 10:09am that the hotel’s whereabouts may have been circulated on TikTok.
These security worries prompted the Israeli players to depart their hotel at 3pm, approximately five hours before the scheduled kick-off.
Leaked logs showed West Midlands Police recorded ‘Asian youths looking for a fight’ before Maccabi Tel Aviv’s match against Aston Villa
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The delegation was subsequently housed inside Villa Park, where they rested on mattresses in the Corner Lounge while awaiting the match.
Police documentation explicitly stated this early relocation was implemented to reduce the “risk of protest interfering with (the) safety and security of (the team’s) convoy” and decrease the “likelihood officers may have to use force to keep the delegation and public safe.”
As the afternoon progressed, the threat level intensified significantly according to the logs seen by The Telegraph.
Late in the afternoon, roughly three hours before kick-off, officers recorded sightings of “groups of Asian youths looking to fight” and noted they had “deployed resources to this.”
The force set out plans to downplay the events to control ‘online sentiment and prevent this being over-dramatised’
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Shortly afterwards, the logs indicated awareness of “risk football fans” planning to assemble at 6pm, followed by observations of “50/60 youths coming down” towards Aston park.
The situation continued to escalate as the evening approached. At 5.43pm, internal records show police identified “15 to 20 youths masked-up and heading in the direction of the stadium.”
However, the Silver Command log recorded at 7:14 pm that the force intended to issue a statement characterising the match day as “largely peaceful, few arrests etc” with the explicit aim of dampening “online sentiment and prevent this being over-dramatised.”
Just two minutes after this entry, at 7.16pm, another log documented the gathering of more than 100 males.
The following day, West Midlands Police released a public statement titled “Thank you to communities after Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv game.”
The force declared: “Our operation to police the Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv passed without major incident, with no serious disorder and no disruption to the game.”
Lord Walney, the Government’s former adviser on political violence, described the latest revelation as evidence of a “systematic cover-up”.
It piles further pressure on West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford, who is facing intense pressure to resign.
Chief Constable Craig Guildford is under pressure to step down over the controversial ban of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans | PA
“The more Chief Constable Guildford has tried to double down and deny the force’s initial cowardice, the worse the scandal has become.
“Like Nixon at Watergate and countless other wrongdoing, it is the cover-up that will tarnish his reputation until he does the decent thing and resigns,” he told The Telegraph.
The leaked logs come as Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned that British police had become powerless in the face of growing Islamic extremism.
GB News has approached West Midlands Police for comment.