{"id":127433,"date":"2026-01-17T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=127433"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:46:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:46:05","slug":"21-00-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=127433","title":{"rendered":"Police Chief in UK Retires After Facing Scrutiny for Banning Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans From Soccer Match"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Police Chief in UK Retires After Facing Scrutiny for Banning Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans From Soccer Match<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford speaking before the Home Affairs Committee on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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West Midlands Police (WMP) Chief Constable Craig Guildford retired on Friday effective immediately after increasing public scrutiny and revelations over his use of \u201cexaggerated or simply untrue\u201d intelligence to\u00a0justify a ban<\/a>\u00a0prohibiting Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans from attending a match late last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simon Foster, the police and crime commissioner of WMP,\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0Guildford\u2019s retirement in a formal statement delivered outside Birmingham\u2019s Lloyd House, which is the headquarters of the West Midlands police force. Guildford will collect his full pension after three decades of service. Foster thanked Guildford for his service and said he welcomes the chief constable\u2019s decision to retire. He added that Guildford\u2019s stepping down is in the \u201cbest interest\u201d of the police force and the local community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guildford\u2019s retirement follows the decision of the Birmingham City Council Safety Advisory Group, based on the recommendation of West Midlands Police, to ban traveling Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans from attending the Europa League soccer match between Aston Villa and the Israeli team on Nov. 6, 2025, at Villa Park in Birmingham due to \u201cpublic safety concerns<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement also comes just two days after British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the British Parliament that she has\u00a0lost confidence in Guildford<\/a>. The minister said she came to the conclusion after receiving a \u201cdamning\u201d and \u201cdevastating\u201d report by Sir Andy Cooke, his Majesty\u2019s chief inspector of constabulary, on Wednesday that revealed several failings by the WMP force in relation to its recommendation to ban Maccabi soccer fans, including \u201cmisleading\u201d public statements and \u201cmisinformation\u201d promoted by the police.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foster acknowledged on Thursday that the police forced faced \u201cunderstandable intense and significant oversight and scrutiny.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe findings of the chief inspector were damning. They set out a catalogue of failings that have harmed trust in West Midlands Police,\u201d Mahmood said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0following Thursday\u2019s announcement. \u201cBy stepping down,\u00a0Craig\u00a0<\/span>Guildford\u00a0<\/span>has done the right thing today \u2026 Today marks a crucial first step to rebuilding trust and confidence in the force amongst all the communities they serve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Guildford\u2019s decision to retire \u201cis simply not good enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCraig Guildford disgraced himself and his force,\u201d Philp\u00a0added<\/a>. \u201cHe should now face gross misconduct proceedings through an Independent Office for Police Conduct\u00a0investigation<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 which can continue even after retirement or resignation. I will now be writing to the IOPC to call for this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reform UK\u2019s Head of Policy Zia Yusuf similarly said Guildford should not be allowed to retire. The chief constable instead should have been fired and \u201cheld accountable for his actions,\u201d Yusuf reportedly said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foster was the only person with power to fire the chief constable. Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, criticized Foster\u2019s lack of action against the chief constable and called for him to step down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat of the only person with the power to hold Craig Guildford to account \u2013 the only one with the power to fire him? West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster took the Government to court to remain in post, so he clearly has some fight in him, but where did that fight go as the only Chief Constable under his supervision became the national poster boy for appeasement and corrupt policing?\u201d Falter\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0in a post on X. \u201cWhy has he not lifted a finger, leaving Craig Guildford to determine if and how he should go? How can Mr. Foster allow the travesty of not sanctioning Mr. Guildford at all, allowing him to retire, with all the benefits that entails?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his announcement on Thursday, Foster said it was important that the matter regarding Guildford\u2019s position be resolved in a \u201cbalanced, calm, fair, measured, and respectful manner\u201d to prevent what could have been \u201csignificant distraction, impact and cost to West Midlands Police and the wider West Midlands.\u201d He also announced that Deputy Chief Constable Scott Green will be acting chief constable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foster has already met with Green \u201cto discuss the actions that the force must take to re-build trust and confidence amongst all the people and communities of the West Midlands, including addressing the significant matters identified in the letter from HMIC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Police Chief in UK Retires After Facing Scrutiny for Banning Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans From Soccer Match Shiryn Ghermezian WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford speaking before the Home Affairs Committee on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot West Midlands Police (WMP) Chief Constable Craig Guildford retired on Friday effective immediately after increasing public scrutiny and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127433"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127447,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127433\/revisions\/127447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}