John Yems has been suspended from all football and football-related activity up to and including January 5, 2026 following a successful FA appeal.
The FA previously brought 16 breaches of FA Rule E3.2 against Yems over comments that "included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief and/or gender" to Crawley players between 2019 and 2022 while he was manager.
Yems admitted to one charge and an independent regulatory commission found him guilty of 11 of the remaining 15, issuing a 17-month ban.
However, the FA appealed this on the basis that the sanction was insufficient and the commission had reached a decision to which no reasonable body could have come to. The panel's verdict was that Yems was "not a conscious racist" which the FA "fundamentally disagreed with".
The appeal board upheld the FA's appeal and imposed a three-year ban, the longest ever issued to a participant in English football for discrimination.
An FA spokesperson said: "We welcome the verdict from the independent appeal board to suspend John Yems from all football-related activity until January 2026.
"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.
"We are pleased that the independent appeal board ruled that specific findings from the independent regulatory commission were unreasonable, as there were numerous examples of inherent and obvious racist language.
"This is a deeply distressing case for the victims involved, and we hope that the outcome of this appeal will help to bring some closure. We also hope that this will encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed discrimination in the game to report it.
"Everyone should be able to play the game in an environment that is free from discrimination and know that they can trust those who occupy positions of responsibility and power to lead a safe and positive culture, free from harm.
"Where discrimination happens, we will always use our very best efforts to ensure the right sanctions are imposed and, where appropriate, education is available to shift mindsets and continually improve the culture of football."
