Premier League

FA ‘fundamentally disagree’ with its own panel on ‘conscious racist’ judgement

Crawley sack John Yems

The Football Association has criticised the findings of its own independent panel, which concluded former Crawley manager John Yems was “not a conscious racist”, as Kick It Out labelled his 15-month ban from the game a “slap in the face” to his victims.

Yems admitted to one charge and was found guilty of 11 others relating to comments that referenced either ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, religion, belief or gender between 2019 and 2022.

An independent regulatory commission found four others to be unproven, with the 63-year-old earlier this month banned from all football-related activity up to and including June 1, 2024.

The written reasons for Yems’ sanctions were published on Tuesday, which indicated the FA pushed for a two-year suspension, but the independent panel sided with Yems’ solicitors, who argued he was not a racist and neither did he “ever intend to make racist remarks”.

READ MORE: The ludicrous case of subconscious racist John Yems shows the FA has ‘some tolerance’ after all

In response on Wednesday, the FA stressed it ‘fundamentally disagreed’ with the panel’s findings, again re-iterating the governing body’s push for a lengthier sanction.

A statement read: “The FA brought 16 charges of discrimination against John Yems. The independent regulatory commission decided on an 18-month ban for the 12 charges which it upheld or was admitted. We had requested a longer ban.

“Based on the evidence presented to the commission, we fundamentally disagree with the independent panel’s finding that this was not a case of conscious racism.”

A number of players from the League Two club took grievances to the Professional Footballers’ Association, which sparked the investigations.

Yems, who took charge of Crawley in December 2019, was suspended for 12 days prior to his dismissal in May.

Anti-discrimination campaigners Kick It Out issued a strongly-worded statement in response to the commission’s findings.

“The discriminatory language outlined in the FA independent panel report is simply shocking,” the statement read.

“Given the seriousness of the incidents detailed, it is very hard to understand how the FA independent panel have concluded that ‘Mr Yems is not a conscious racist’. We do not share that viewpoint. The behaviour outlined in the report must be called out for exactly what it is, racism and Islamophobia.

“To speak plainly, a 15-month ban given the severity of the 11 proven charges is a…

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