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Police boss declines to sack chief constable after 'damning fan ban review
Western Mail
|January 15, 2026
THE West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) has declined to sack his chief constable who lost the confidence of the Home Secretary over the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a match against Aston Villa.
> West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford
In a statement, PCC Simon Foster said he listened to Shabana Mahmood’s statement yesterday and awaits a parliamentary report over the matter before considering the position of Chief Constable Craig Guildford.
The Home Secretary told MPs that findings by the policing watchdog into the force's intelligence gathering show “confirmation bias” over the decision to bar the Israeli football team fans from attending Villa Park in November.
She said that there had been “a failure of leadership” and that the report by chief inspector of constabulary Sir Andy Cooke had been “damning”
Ms Mahmood added: “The ultimate responsibility for the force's failure to discharge its duties on a matter of such national importance rests with the chief constable, and it is for that reason that I must declare today that the chief constable of West Midlands Police no longer has my confidence.”
This story is from the January 15, 2026 edition of Western Mail.
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