FA say 'we are considering our legal options' and 'requested a longer ban' for former Crawley Town manager John Yems following independent panel's findings

The FA faced a lot of criticism on social media on Tuesday (January 17) following the full summary of the charges, sanctions and decisions being released. You can read the full summary here.

The summary contains everything Yems was accused of saying following accusations from five players.

Following the release of the full summary, an FA statement read: “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.”

Chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “We’ve been clear that we’re unhappy with the sanction and some of the elements of the judgments, and we’re looking into our legal options now.”

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 However, this charge was denied by John Yems and later withdrawn by The FA prior to any hearing.