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Crawley suspended Yems in April 2022 over
accusations that he used discriminatory language and behaviour
towards his players between 2019 and 2022. He left the club
nearly two weeks later, days after the FA announced its
investigation.
Yems was found to have made 16 breaches of FA Rule E3.2, which
relates to comments on race and ethnicity.
The 63-year-old admitted to one charge and was initially banned
by an independent regulatory commission for 17 months until 1
June 2024.
But the FA appealed the decision, saying that the sanction was
insufficient and that it disagreed with the commission's finding
that this was not a case of conscious racism.
"We welcome the verdict from the independent Appeal Board to
suspend John Yems from all football-related activity until
January 2026," the FA said in a statement.
"This is the longest ever ban issued to a participant in English
football for discrimination, and follows our decision to appeal
and challenge the verdict of the independent Regulatory
Commission after the first hearing in January.
"We strongly disagreed with their original sanction, as well as
some of the elements of their judgement, which we fundamentally
believed were not appropriate for the severity of the offences
committed by John Yems."
British anti-discriminatory body Kick It Out welcomed the appeal
board's decision to extend the ban, calling it a "landmark
moment".
"We... wholeheartedly concur with their conclusion that the
initial judgement that he was 'not a conscious racist' is
'untenable'," said Kick It Out chief executive Tony Burnett.
"Strong sanctions are crucial in sending out a message that
racist, Islamophobic and discriminatory language will not be
tolerated in football.
"We hope that the record-length ban issued to Yems today will be
a landmark moment that enables more victims of discrimination to
come forward and provides a powerful statement that abusing the
power dynamic between coach and player will have severe
consequences."
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in BengaluruEditing by Christian
Radnedge)
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