Former Crawley boss John Yems insists he is not a racist and says there 'should be a few apologies' coming his way in talkSPORT interview

The FA said the independent panel 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 former Reds manager 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.

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 However, this charge was denied by John Yems and later withdrawn by The FA prior to any hearing.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 hearing deemed John Yems ‘not a conscious racist’ in their full summary, which you can read here. (a pdf will download when you click on the link.

The FA have since released a further statement saying: ““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. As a result, we are considering our legal options.”

But Yems appeared on talkSPORT today – you can read and hear the interview here – to defend himself. He said: “People are out there are going to say what they are going to say, people are going to think what they are going to think.

“I would say to you, have a look that I wasn’t found to be racist, never used racist language with intent, if anybody needs an apology then I think I do. The amount of abuse I’ve been getting when people haven’t even had the courtesy to ask me.

“I don’t think anybody has looked at the case with any open mindedness. I think if you are going there then there should be a few apologies coming my way.”

On the term ‘conscious racist’, Yems added: “To be quite honest with you, I don’t know where this conscious racist is coming from. To me it was cut and dry. I don’t know the meaning of that. I’m not trying to be a thicko, I just don’t know what it’s about. I was dragged through the worst experiences of my life. I’ve worked with black players, I’ve worked with white players, I’ve worked with every race and most countries. Some of the things I’ve been accused of saying, to me, okay some have said I used old fashioned language. I totally agree, if that’s the case then that’s the case.

“It so easy to throw accusations and if you throw enough mud then some of it will stick. I find that very offensive for people to say I’m racist.”

You can read and hear interview on talkSPORT’s website here.