British defence of Maccabi Tel Aviv after events in Stuttgart is now even more tin-eared, but there's now no avoiding the fallout either... Right, so Maccabi Tel Aviv backfired — and ministers are stuck with the consequences. That’s not a prediction, it’s where this already is. They rushed out to defend a decision they didn’t take, attacked the police who did, and insisted the risk was imaginary. Now the facts have landed somewhere they don’t control, and the noise has stopped. Because this isn’t just about one match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv, or one ban that caused a weekend row. It’s part of a wider pattern where ministers treat preventive decisions as political inconveniences, swap judgement for certainty, and then quietly retreat once reality intrudes. In this case, reality turned up in Stuttgart, with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s fans sanctioned for  ...