By Louie French

Football fans will be familiar with the many initiatives to root out the scourge of racism in the game.

Whether that is players wearing black armbands to Kick Racism out of Football or Wear Red Day - which is today - in support of the charity Show Racism the Red Card, clubs and officials are at pains to proudly stand against hatred.

But when that hatred and racism was directed towards Jews, the authorities have shamefully decided to cave in to antisemitic aggression from activists and hate preachers.

Instead of standing up to racism, West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council have decided to ban away fans of the Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv from coming to watch their team play Aston Villa in Birmingham in the Europa League next month.

They classed the match as “high risk” and said that they would not allow away fans to travel in the interests of public safety.

The police cited a fear of the repeat of “violent clashes and hate crime offences” that occurred in Amsterdam last year when Maccabi played Ajax.

Let’s be clear, the shocking scenes in Amsterdam were an antisemitic pogrom........

© LBC