Tension was high on the sidelines of the football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa on November 6 in Birmingham in the Europa League. Supporters of the Israeli club had been banned from traveling on the recommendation of the British police in order to preserve “the well-being and security” of English fans. 700 police officers were mobilized to secure the match.
Already strongly criticized at the time, notably by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Israeli government, these police instructions were subsequently the subject of a request for an independent report, which was made public this Wednesday. And its findings are “damning”, according to Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood, adding that local police chief Craig Guildford had lost his trust.
A match invented by an AI
“The police exaggerated the threat posed by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters, while downplaying the risk faced by Israeli supporters if they traveled to Birmingham for the match,” she denounced. Rather than relying on evidence, police only looked for evidence that supported their position. »
At the time, the authorities relied in particular on the past of Israeli supporters, including clashes which took place in 2024 in the Europa League during a match against Ajax Amsterdam. But also on supposed excesses during a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the English club West Ham. Problem: this opposition never existed and is only the fruit of an invention coming from artificial intelligence.
The police chief pushed towards the exit
When questioned, Craig Guildford initially affirmed that the error came from a simple search carried out on Google, specifying that artificial intelligence had never been used in his research. Before retracting in a letter this Wednesday morning: “I noted that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham match against Maccabi Tel Aviv was due to the use of Copilot”, an artificial intelligence tool produced by Microsoft.
Despite a “sincere apology” from the West Midlands Police chief, calls for his resignation have continued to emerge in recent days. He should be heard by the competent authorities in the coming weeks and could therefore lose his position.
