Crawley Town have suspended manager John Yems indefinitely after “serious and credible” allegations were made over him using discriminatory language towards the club's players.
The 62-year-old will not be in the dugout for Crawley's League Two match on Saturday, away at Mansfield Town. A statement posted on the club's website on Saturday morning said: "Late Friday, Crawley Town Football Club was made aware of serious and credible accusations that first team manager John Yems used discriminatory language and behaviour toward our players.
"We take these allegations seriously and, effective immediately, have suspended him indefinitely as we investigate and consider further punitive action. Let us be clear: Crawley Town Football Club stands behind our players, employees and supporters, and we will never tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind."
Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex on Saturday, Yems said it was "the first he's heard of the allegations", and that he "hasn't been contacted directly by the club."
Yems is in his second spell in charge of the Sussex club having been appointed back in December 2019. His current contract runs until the end of the 2022-23 campaign. He was previously joint-caretaker boss during the 2006-07 season. The incident is an unwanted slice of attention for Crawley's new owners, who only recently completed a takeover.
WAGMI United LLC completed the purchase of the club in early April. The company are to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as an ownership model, allowing people across the world to make decisions on the club, while also generating valuable revenue streams. NFTs have no physical form but can be bought or sold.
Upon their ownership being confirmed, co-founders Preston Johnson and Eben Smith vowed to build a "worldwide community of fans" despite the club having little reach outside Sussex and boasting average attendances this season of just 2,249 - the second-lowest in the EFL.
Despite the bold promises, many have questioned the policy. Respected football finance expert Kieran Maguire, who runs the popular Price of Football Twitter account and podcast, has big concerns over the deal.
He said: "It's a highly volatile, unregulated and easily manipulated market. If you want to buy into it in those circumstances then good luck to you is my view. There is nothing wrong with new people coming in, if they want to engage with fans that is great. If engagement means you have to buy fan tokens, I think they said you can vote in the new directors. But if something sounds too good to be true, it generally, in my experience, tends not to be true."
Crawley are currently 12th in the table with four games of the season remaining. They are nine points off the play-offs and realistically even if they won all four games they would probably fall short of seventh spot.
