The U.K.'s home secretary on Wednesday urged the head of one of the country's leading police forces to resign following a report on how fans from Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv were banned from a Europa League match against Premier League side Aston Villa in Birmingham last year.
Shabana Mahmood told lawmakers that the independent report found "a failure of leadership" on the part of West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford, adding that he "no longer has my confidence."
The ban came at a time of heightened concerns about antisemitism in Britain following a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue and calls from Palestinians and their supporters for a sports boycott of Israel over the war with Hamas in Gaza.
The decision to ban Maccabi fans from the match with Aston Villa on Nov. 6 was widely criticized, including by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
West Midlands Police said at the time it had deemed the match to be high risk "based on current intelligence and previous incidents," including violence and hate crimes that took place when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam last season.
Guildford did not immediately comment on the report Wednesday but West Midlands Police said "mistakes were made" without mentioning its chief constable.
Mahmood said the report by the chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, found that West Midlands Police had overstated the threat posed by Maccabi fans while understating the potential risks to them, and "conducted little engagement with the Jewish community" before a decision was taken.
She said the report noted that "the force sought only the evidence to support their desired position to ban the fans." The report did not find the police force was antisemitic.
Mahmood also noted a police reference at the time to a nonexistent match between Maccabi and Premier League side West Ham in 2023, which was deemed to be an "AI hallucination."
Guildford previously denied that AI was to blame for that error but apologized for it Wednesday ahead of the report's publication.
Mahmood said she didn't have the power to fire Guildford as a result of a policy change by the previous Conservative government in 2011, but she was looking to reinstate that power to home secretaries. Currently, locally elected police and crime commissioners have that power.
Simon Foster, the West Midlands commissioner, acknowledged the "significant strength of feeling" surrounding the controversy and said he would seek further answers from Guildford at a public meeting on Jan. 27 of his accountability and governance board.
In a letter to committee chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley, the senior police figure said that evidence given to the committee by himself and Assistant Chief Constable Mike O'Hara that wrong intelligence over a West Ham match with Maccabi Tel Aviv was because of a Google search was incorrect.
Instead, the "erroneous result" arose from the use of the artificial intelligence tool Microsoft CoPilot.
Guildford wrote: "Both ACC O'Hara and I had, up until Friday afternoon, understood that the West Ham match had only been identified through the use of Google.
"I would like to offer my profound apology to the Committee for this error, both on behalf of myself and that of ACC O'Hara.
"I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending HAC.
"My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the Committee."
During the select committee hearing on January 6, MPs asked Mr Guildford if any artificial intelligence had been used in the force's process.
He said: "There was a definite note that we've got to the bottom of in terms of the West Ham game.
"The summation, I think in the House, it was a question that was asked in the House was that, you know, you've used the AI, or West Midlands may have used AI on this particular occasion.
"We don't do that. We don't use the AI."
The police chief has faced mounting pressure and calls to resign over the ban.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were barred from travelling to the game at Villa Park by the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which cited safety concerns based on advice from the police force.
This included a reference by the force to a match between the Israeli club and West Ham United that never happened.
Since then, doubts have been growing over the intelligence used by police, including disputes over the accuracy of information.
Guildford has insisted the decision was not politically influenced.
The power to sack Guildford lies with West Midlands police and crime commissioner Simon Foster, who has said he will formally review evidence on decision-making around the ban.
Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.