Meet John Yems, Football's "Accidental Racist"

A race row engulfs English football.

Nothing new there, except that this time, it is a manager who has been banned, albeit temporarility, for discriminatory benahiour towards former players.

John Yems, is guilty of 12 charges of misconduct but according to the inquiry panel that decided his punsihment, Yems is not a "conscious racist."

(https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...)

For his part, Yems is bemused by the ban.

"It's not a court of law," Yems argued. "I haven't broken any laws - rather rules. It's like getting thrown out of one pub and another one letting you in there - as simple as that. You've made mistakes under FA rules and you have to take the punishment or you appeal.

The 63-year-old has been given an 18-month ban, after players from Crawley Town, Yem's former club, complained about how they were treated by the manager.

The League Two club dismissed Yems when the complaints were made public.

The FA's inquiry panel concluded that Crawley's players found Yem's behaviour to be "offensive, racist and Islamophobic."

As such, he received the longest ban that has ever been imposed for discriminatory language.

'We regard this as an extremely serious case,' the FA report declared. "We have accepted that Yems is not a conscious racist. If he were, an extremely lengthy, even permanent, suspension would be appropriate.

'Nevertheless, Yems' 'banter' undoubtedly came across to the victims and others as offensive, racist and Islamophobic. Yems simply paid no regard to the distress which his misplaced jocularity was causing."