Ex-Crawley manager John Yems has had his suspension from football for making racist comments extended until 2026 following a successful appeal by the Football Association.
His extended suspension is the longest ever ban issued to someone in English football for discrimination.
The FA appealed the sanction on the basis it was “insufficient”.
A report from the disciplinary commission had said comments made by Yems were “not a case of conscious racism”, which the FA said they “fundamentally disagreed” with.
The appeal board upheld the FA’s claim with a subsequent three-year ban issued until January 2026.
“We welcome the verdict from the independent appeal board to suspend John Yems from all football-related activity until January 2026,” an FA spokesperson said.
“We strongly disagreed with their original sanction, as well as some of the elements of their judgement, which we fundamentally believed were not appropriate for the severity of the offences committed by John Yems.
“We are pleased that the independent appeal board ruled that specific findings from the Independent Regulatory Commission were unreasonable, as there were numerous examples of inherent and obvious racist language.
“This is a deeply distressing case for the victims involved, and we hope that the outcome of this appeal will help to bring some closure. We also hope that this will encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed discrimination in the game to report it.”
More to follow.