Deny, deny, admit: UK police used Copilot AI “hallucination” when banning football fans

January 14, 2026

TL;DR

West Midlands Police chief constable Craig Guildford admitted that Microsoft Copilot, an AI tool, generated erroneous information used in a decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans.
The police initially denied using AI, with Guildford offering alternative explanations like 'social media scraping' and 'bad Googling' to Parliament.
The ban was controversial, with accusations of bias against Jewish fans following recent terror attacks.
Police claims about fan violence in Amsterdam were found to be exaggerated or untrue by Dutch authorities.
A fabricated match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv, generated by AI, was included in the intelligence report.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated that Guildford no longer has her confidence and called the incident a 'failure of leadership'.
Calls for Guildford's resignation have been made by both conservatives and MPs, citing concerns about the use of unreliable AI in security decisions without proper policy or training.

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