West Midlands Police
Maccabi Tel Aviv away-fan ban intelligence report
Corrected · 22 February 2026
What was fabricated
Microsoft Copilot generated a fixture between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham that never took place; the non-existent match was used in the force's intelligence report as evidence that Maccabi fans posed an unusual risk. A 10 October 2025 reply from the operation's Gold Commander carried further AI-sourced claims about the Amsterdam disorder — that 2,000 Dutch police had been deployed, that “people were thrown into the river”, and that the disorder was “well organised and targeted towards Muslim communities”.
What happened as a result
The force gave incorrect evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on two separate appearances before submitting a written correction. Chief Constable Craig Guildford apologised and retired, an outcome the Committee explicitly endorsed; Microsoft Copilot was suspended force-wide and the matter declared a critical incident; the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating one senior officer and one staff member over the force's AI use. The Committee's report of 22 February 2026 found the force “failed to do even basic due diligence on the information they received. This included false information that was generated by AI.”
Sources
- https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/83/home-affairs-committee/news/212026/ai-used-to-reinforce-false-narratives-in-maccabi-fan-ban-report-finds/
- https://www.thejc.com/news/politics/west-midlands-police-used-false-information-created-by-ai-to-justify-ban-on-israeli-fans-mps-find-vx0tcn1x
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