Former Crawley Town manager John Yems has been suspended from all football and related activities for three years for breaching anti-discrimination rules following an appeal by the English Football Association, it said on Wednesday.

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 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.