Maccabi Tel Aviv fined €20,000 over fans’ ‘racist’ behavior in Stuttgart

UEFA also bans soccer club from selling tickets for one away match after incident in which supporters chanted defamatory slogans; German police probing disturbances

European soccer’s governing body has handed Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv a one-game ban on selling tickets to away supporters due to their behavior at a recent European fixture, and fined the club €20,000 ($23,416).

The penalties were announced in a statement by UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body on Wednesday.

The ban, which is on suspension for two years, was issued following a December 11 match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and German club VfB Stuttgart in the latter’s home city.

It was the first game that Maccabi had played away since a controversial match against UK club Aston Villa, which had banned fans of the Israeli club from attending following a police assessment that the supporters were a security risk.

According to the UEFA disciplinary board, Maccabi fans attending the Germany game had shown “racist and/or discriminatory behavior.”

Stuttgart police confirmed to The New York Times on Thursday that they had opened an investigation into fans chanting defamatory slogans as they gathered before the game held at the Neckarstadion venue.

In a video shared on social media, Maccabi fans chanted an offensive theme song known as “The Rape Song,” which is usually directed against the club’s archrival Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Among the verses are lyrics that “you are the whores of Arabs” and “we will take your girls… and when we rape them we will shout” of desire for the death of the team’s opponents.

Police also temporarily detained six fans and prevented them from attending the game after they repeatedly set up pyrotechnics, the Times said.

Another clip shared on social appeared to show a Maccabi fan giving a Nazi salute in the stadium during the match.

Stuttgart won the game 4-1.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was not the only club sanctioned by UEFA. In an announcement listing disciplinary action it was taking, the CEDB named five other clubs that were given similar fines or bans over their fans’ behavior.

The Israeli club has found itself at the center of several controversies in recent months.

In October, Aston Villa announced that no Maccabi fans would be allowed to attend a November match following a police assessment that classified the event as “high risk” and suggested banning Israeli fans from the stadium.

The decision to ban Israeli fans from the game sparked criticism, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who set about trying to reverse the move, though Maccabi Tel Aviv later announced it would decline tickets for its fans anyway, citing safety concerns.

Police later admitted to a parliamentary committee looking into the ban that the risk assessment referenced a game that was fictitious. The force also later admitted it wrongly told members of parliament that the Birmingham Jewish community had been consulted and supported the ban.

In November 2024, violence broke out between fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax after a game in Amsterdam.

Maccabi fans had been documented chanting anti-Arab songs ahead of the match, and had vandalized a taxi and pulled down a Palestinian flag.

Following the match, mobs of antisemitic rioters targeted and beat up the Israelis, in an apparently organized, widespread attack that resulted in injuries to Maccabi fans as well as dozens of arrests, and that was roundly condemned by Dutch and Israeli leaders.