FA concludes John Yems is ‘not a conscious racist’ despite series of offensive racial remarks | Soccer News

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The FA revealed a series of offensive racist remarks by John Yems, but still concluded Crawley’s former manager was “not a conscious racist”.

Yems was banned from football for 15 months for multiple breaches of the Football Association’s discriminatory comment rule.

The 63-year-old has been charged by the Football Association after making 16 alleged comments which “involved a reference to ethnic origin and/or color and/or race and/or nationality and/or to religion or belief and/or gender” to Crawley Players between 2019 and 2022.

Yems admitted one charge and was convicted of 11 others relating to comments referring to ethnic origin, color, race, nationality, religion, belief or gender between 2019 and 2022.

An independent regulatory commission concluded four others were unproven, as Yems was banned earlier this month from all football-related activity until June 1, 2024 inclusive.

But the FA panel however concluded that Yems:

Describes the Muslim team members as “terrorists” Deliberately mispronounced the second half of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name to emphasize the word NA used a racial stereotype to a black player of African descent when asking if he liked the jerk chicken Told Muslim players ‘your people are blowing things up with vests’ Said that a young Iraqi club international ‘would probably blow up the stadium’ Repeatedly commented on another player ‘carrying a bomb in his bag” Called a player a “curry muncher” and asked if the player was upset that they didn’t serve “curry pizza” Made a remark to a player about “how dark his skin is ‘ on his return to Crawley after representing Grenada Frequently asked several African players if they ate jerk chicken despite being repeatedly told it was a Jamaican delicacy.

A sanctions document says the FA requested a two-year suspension, but the independent panel agreed with Yems’ lawyers that his client was not racist and “never intended to make any racist remarks”.

The FA said in its findings: “We consider this to be an extremely serious case. We have accepted that Mr Yems is not a conscious racist.

“If he was, an extremely long, even permanent suspension would be appropriate.

“Nevertheless, Mr. Yems’ ‘jokes’ undoubtedly came across to victims and others as offensive, racist and Islamophobic. Mr. Yems simply ignored the distress caused by his inappropriate joke. “

Yems, who took charge of Crawley in December 2019, was suspended for 12 days before he was fired in May.

A number of the Ligue 2 club’s players have lodged complaints with the Professional Footballers’ Association, which has launched the investigations.

Sky Sports News has contacted the FA for comment and asked the governing body for an interview, to clarify the conclusion reached by its panel.

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