Iām not a particular fan of Owen Jones, but he mentioned something in that piece that I hadnāt even considered, even though itās so blatantly obvious in retrospect.
Which is, what would the reaction be if Arab Ajax fans were singing songs about killing Jews and raping Jewish women? Now imagine they werenāt even doing it in Amsterdam, but they went to Tel Aviv and sang those songsā¦
You would have to be pretty brave to do that, because you would likely be in an Israeli prison now.
On the radio (Radio X so hardly the most unimpeachable source but I think their news comes from a bigger agency) this morning, they are now claiming that the Maccabi fans were ātargetedā by āhit and run squadsā
Neutral venue seems like the sensible option, but Maccabi Tel Aviv shluld have to play the corresponding fixture at a neutral venue instead too (tbf maybe that fixture has already happened, Iāve gone back to paying 0 attention to the EL now were thankfully not in it)
Might as well stop Maccabi playing any away games in Europe given how their fans behaved in Amsterdam. A neutral venue is likely to see some of the same problems.