Anti-racism campaigners have warned a “dangerous precedent” has been set after the former Crawley manager John Yems avoided a life ban from football because multiple instances of discriminatory behaviour were deemed to be “not consciously” racist.
An independent regulatory commission chose this month to suspend Yems from the game until 1 June 2024, for 12 breaches of anti-discrimination rules. But in explaining the sanction the FA-authorised panel said they had opted for a shorter punishment because they did not believe Yems was being deliberately racist. The Guardian understands that such a consideration exceeded the terms under which the commission was supposed to operate.
