Two Aston Villa safety advisers spoke out against Tel Aviv match

She wrote: “Aston Villa has a choice. Hosting Maccabi Tel Aviv right now sends a message that ignores the suffering of Palestinians. Please sign this petition and help us urge the club to stand on the right side of history.”

A day earlier, Zaffar wrote an article on the Birmingham Live website saying that he intended to boycott the match. He said: “We simply cannot sit and watch a football team from a state whose government is perpetrating what we and many others view as a humanitarian crisis, with the killing of thousands of innocent children and civilians in Palestine.”

The extent of the influence Hussain and Zaffar had on the decision to ban fans is unknown but the revelations have raised concerns that their motivation was principally political rather than based on security grounds.

Mike Olley, a former Birmingham city councillor and now honorary alderman, has called for transparency over how the decision was made because Birmingham’s reputation as a tolerant city was at stake.

• Aston Villa put stuttering start in rear-view mirror with win at Tottenham

He said: “The official reasoning speaks of safety and security, but the optics tell another story. When you ban fans based on nationality or faith, it becomes a question far bigger than football. This is about who we are as a city and whether we have allowed fear, prejudice or political calculation to creep into our institutions.”

He added: “The Aston Villa Football Club safety advisory group is a body that includes representatives from Birmingham city council, the police, the fire service, the ambulance service and the football club itself. It is meant to make impartial decisions on match safety. Yet when that decision results in the exclusion of an entire group of Jewish supporters, we are entitled to ask serious questions.”

A third councillor on the safety advisory group, the former Conservative parliamentary candidate Alex Yip, has said he believes the “wrong decision” was made.

He posted on X: “We cannot tolerate antisemitism on our streets and for fear of that to win out. The police should ensure all football fans can enjoy the game without fear of violence or intimidation.”

Last week Sir Keir Starmer said he objected to the ban, suggesting that action would be taken to reverse the decision.

• Shabana Mahmood was briefed on Maccabi Tel Aviv match last week

On Sunday, however, Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said the government could not promise “come what may” that away fans would be allowed to attend the match on November 6.

Miliband said on Sky News that ministers were “working towards” ensuring the ban would be lifted as talks with the police, council and other authorities continued.

He said Villa Park should not be a “no-go area” for Jews, but stressed that efforts to support integration were “not something you can ever take for granted”.

Miliband, who is from a Jewish family, said: “We cannot have a situation where any area is a no-go area for people of a particular religion or from a particular country, and we’ve got to stamp out all forms of prejudice, antisemitism, Islamophobia, wherever we find them.”

Lord Triesman, a Labour peer and former chairman of the Football Association, criticised the government’s reaction to the ban.

In a letter to The Times, Triesman wrote: “The decisions in Birmingham on banning Tel Aviv supporters and the pallid, inconsequential statement from my own party leadership, and the murder of community members in Manchester on the most sacred of our days … raise fundamental issues of years tolerating dreadful behaviour. We were always capable of far better inter-communal relations and perhaps as Labour general secretary I should have done more but the failures have overwhelmed our leadership.”

He added: “I have with huge reluctance come to doubt that this is a safe country for Jewish people.”

Hussain did not respond to a request for comment. Zaffar said: “I sit on the Aston Villa safety advisory board as one of 85 members, 4 of whom are councillors of different political parties.

“The board decided to follow the advice of West Midlands police in taking this decision.”

Click here to read article