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Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao had no away fans. It happens a few times every year across Europe. If you’re only looking at UEFA matches you’ll find fewer, but it’s not that unheard of. Argentina had a 12 year ban on away fans recently lifted as well.

> Individuals are often banned from football matches. Banning a team from bringing any supporters is rare.

Completely wrong - here is a list of recent stadium bans for various football fans:

https://www.uefa.com/running-competitions/disciplinary/stadi...

Stadium bans arent uncommon, but bans from the UK authorities are essentially unheard of.

That list confirms that during 2025 there was one incidence of UEFA banning a Europa League team from bringing fans. There are nearly 200 matches in one season of Europa League, so it's rare, I think.

There are multiple “no away fans” bans in 2025 on that page. It is common-ish and contradicts your earlier claims of it not happening to anyone but Maccabi.

Look again. There is one away fan ban listed during 2025 for the Europa League, as I said. I did not say it happened to no one but Maccabi.

Just incredible how little people understand football on here, but confidently say things like this.

Here's an example from a few months ago where Italy suspended their EU obligations to free movement to prevent hooligans entering from Germany.[1] This is a far bigger response, which affected all Germans entering Italy, not just the football fans. This is a far bigger response and of questionable legality.

[1] - https://www.visahq.com/news/2025-11-04/de/italys-one-day-bor...

> Here's an example from a few months ago where Italy suspended their EU obligations to free movement to prevent hooligans entering from Germany

Are you sure that all away fans were banned? Doesn't look like it. It looks like they imposed controls to forbid the travel of particular people, which, as I said, often happens.

> Airlines operating Germany–Italy routes were asked to verify passenger identities against watch-lists before boarding

The same club has since been banned from bringing any supporters for 2 games. https://en.eintracht.de/news/uefa-spricht-strafen-aus-eintra...

This is a very common punishment for clubs that have hooligans for fans. Like Eintract. Like Maccabi.

Right, as you can see here: https://www.uefa.com/running-competitions/disciplinary/stadi...

It also looks like a UEFA ban is rare not common. One incidence in 2025 for Europa League matches.

Yeah, bans are rare because hooliganism is rare. But in the instances of hooliganism, stadium bans are common! "Oh no, Maccabi fans are being targeted". No more than any other hooligans.

Ah, well that I agree with! I suspect the only remaining point of disagreement is whether the level of hooliganism of Maccabi fans warranted the ban. My guess, based on what I've seen from the evidence to the Commons committee is no, but I'm not particularly inclined to get into a debate about that.

My guess based on what I've seen from Amsterdam, is that there would have been clashes in Birmingham, just as there were clashes in Amsterdam. Without getting into who was at fault and who would have been at fault, we're all better off for having avoided the violence. This would be unfair if the Maccabi fans were entirely blameless, but based on the reports from Amsterdam, the Maccabi fans weren't.

Btw, you clearly don't know much about Maccabi. Here there are a decade ago, with their fans being investigated for racism by the Israeli FA (https://newisraelfund.org.uk/issue/kick-it-out-complaint-lea...). Is the Israeli FA anti-semitic too? They've also been banned from Israeli stadiums in the past for hooliganism.

> you clearly don't know much about Maccabi

I know nothing about Maccabi, but nothing I've said relies on "good behaviour" on the part of of Maccabi fans.

The level of racist violence we saw in Amsterdam is also quite rare.

It used to be more common in the 90s iirc.

Are you sure? For example, you said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans

> threw an innocent member of the public into a river

whereas the BBC says

> It was, in fact, a Maccabi fan who was found in the river

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xnzye903o

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