Dutch police have questioned the credibility of claims used by British officers to justify excluding Israeli fans from a football match in Birmingham in their testimony to an official inquiry.

Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned from the Europa League game against Aston Villa in November by a Birmingham safety committee following intelligence from West Midlands police.

The decision caused outrage and claims police were caving in to antisemitism. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, ordered the policing inspectorate to investigate the affair.

The first part of the inquiry by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has examined West Midlands police’s (WMP) handling of that intelligence. The findings are due this week and sources from senior policing, Whitehall and Birmingham’s local government expect them to be critical.

Central to the WMP case is what they were told by Dutch police as they planned for the game. The force says this intelligence led them to believe Maccabi fans had been perpetrators of violence during a match against Ajax in Amsterdam in November 2024.

But HMIC spoke to Dutch police, who told its inquiry several key claims relied on by West Midlands police clashed with its experience of policing Maccabi fans during that...