Maccabi Tel Aviv Chief Executive lamented that their local fans will not be able to visit Birmingham for the Europa League match against Aston Villa on Thursday. First, the club decided not to open the stadium to away visitors due to security reasons, a movement criticised by English PM Keir Starmer.
Anticipating a possible reverse decision, it ended up being Maccabi Tel Aviv the ones that rejected any offers to go to Birmingham anyway, forbidding their fans to go to the football match, " from hard lessons learned", as most of the times that an Israeli team visits Europe, pro-Palestine demonstration are organised around the stadiums, often resulting in clashes.
"It became a political issue and we're not a pawn in a political game, we're a football club", said Maccabi Tel Aviv chief Jack Angelides to BBC Sport.
"Our strengths are running a football club and playing football. It's incredibly sad and I think it's a concerning and a worrying sign", he said, adding that "politics should never be drawn into football", and suggesting that there's a desire to "perpetuate myths and falsehoods" around Maccabi Tel Aviv and its fans.
"Our first team squad consists of Muslims, Christian and Jewish players and our fan base also crosses the ethnic and religious divide. We have also been working tirelessly to stamp out racism within the more extreme elements of our fan base", said the club in a statement last month, calling "hate-filled falsehoods" that has created a toxic atmosphere that makes it unsafe for their fans to attend away matches.