FA publish full summary of all 11 charges former Crawley Town manager John Yems was found guilty of and what he was accused of saying that saw him banned from all football until 2024

An independent Regulatory Commission has suspended Yems from all football and football-related activity up to and including 1 June 2024, and ordered him to attend an education programme for 12 breaches of FA Rule E3.2.

The FA said the former manager of Crawley Town FC was charged with 16 alleged comments in breach of FA Rule E3.2 during the period between 2019 and 2022. It was alleged that each breach amounts to an “aggravated breach” of FA Rule E3.2 as the comments included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief and/or gender.

The FA also said it was further alleged that he had discriminated against Crawley Town FC players by reasons of ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief in breach of FA Rule E4 during the period between 2019 and 2022. However, this charge was denied by John Yems and later withdrawn by The FA prior to any hearing.

The FA said Yems admitted one of the remaining 16 charges and denied 15. An independent Regulatory Commission subsequently found 11 of them to be proven and four unproven during a hearing. The Commission also imposed his sanctions, and its written reasons for these decisions can be viewed below.

The FA’s summary revealed five players had made accusations and it said one of the players ‘was mentally in a bad state and had begun to drink heavily after being upset over things that Mr Yems said’ while a loan signing ‘even feigned illness in order not to return to the Club’.

In the document explaining the sanctions, the FA said: “We regard this as an extremely serious case. We have accepted that Mr Yems is not a conscious racist. If he were, an extremely lengthy, even permanent, suspension would be appropriate. Nevertheless, Mr Yems’s “banter” undoubtedly came across to the victims and others as offensive, racist and islamaphobic. Mr Yems simply paid no regard to the distress which his misplaced jocularity was causing.”

The summary – which contains racist and discriminatory language and distressing content – goes into detail of what Yems was accused of saying to the players and it can be read in full here (a pdf will download when you click on the link).

The document explaining the sanctions can be found here (a pdf will download when you click on the link).

We have approached John Yems for a comment.