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Comment by tome | Hacker News Reader

> 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

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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.

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