Six people were arrested ahead of Aston Villa’s highly charged Europa League fixture with Maccabi Tel Aviv, which passed without serious incident, APA reports.
The league phase match at Villa Park, which the hosts won 2-0, became a major political event after the Israeli club’s supporters were banned from attending due to fears over their safety.
The decision was made by Birmingham’s Safety Advisory Group, with Villa having no involvement, but it sparked a parliamentary-level debate as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called it “wrong”.
More than 700 police officers were deployed amid a huge security operation, which involved police horses, police dogs and a drone unit ahead of planned pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests.
And six arrests were made before kick-off, three of which were on suspicion of racially aggravated offences.
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