Under-fire police chief Craig Guildford is set to quit over the Maccabi Tel Aviv intelligence scandal.

Mr Guildford, who is set to keep his pension, faced weeks of calls to be sacked.

But policing chiefs are set to this afternoon announce he is retiring from his £220,000 a year role.

It comes after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she has lost confidence in the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police after falsified intelligence led to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans being banned from the event.

Ms Mahmood said the force "overstated" the threat posed by Israeli football fans whilst underplaying the risk from local Islamist mobs ahead of the match.

A police watchdog probe into the scandal found the intelligence was "exaggerated" in some cases, whilst in others it was "untrue".

Labour Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster initially refused to sack the Chief Constable, who is clinging to power.

And Mr Guildford wanted to cling on to his job until at least the end of the month.

But pressure continued to build after Downing Street also said it had lost confidence in him.

Police watchdog Sir Andy Cooke found that West Midlands were guilty of “confirmation bias”, seeking only evidence to support their desire for a ban rather than “following the evidence”.

This saw the force focus on a Dutch game where there had been violence, but not more peaceful matches in Greece, Ukraine and Denmark.

Inaccurate claims included links between fans and the Israeli Defense Forces, the targeting of Muslim communities, the mass tearing down of Palestinian flags, and attacks on police officers and on taxi drivers.

The Labour Home Secretary slammed the intelligence failures.

She said: "The West Midlands Police engagement with the Dutch police is one of the most disquieting elements of Sir Andy's report.

"The summary, provided as evidence to the Safety Advisory Group ahead of their crucial meeting on the 24th October was inaccurate.

"Claims including the number of police officers deployed, links between fans and the Israeli Defense Forces, the targeting of Muslim communities, the mass tearing down of Palestinian flags, attacks on police officers and on taxi drivers were all either exaggerated or simply untrue."

And the Home Secretary will reintroduce powers to allow her to sack chief constables.

Mr Guildford admitted his force used AI to find evidence of trouble involving the Israeli team.

And it justified banning fans after the AI search found social media posts about violence at a fictitious match involving West Ham United on November 9 2023.

That day, West Ham were playing against Greek side Olympiacos. Maccabi Tel Aviv, meanwhile, were playing in Lublin, Poland.

This is a breaking story. More to follow.