Kick It Out has called for tougher sanctions to punish discrimination in football after reporting a record number of incidents in the 2025-26 season. The anti-discrimination body said it recorded 1,255 incidents across all levels of English football, up from 960 in the previous campaign, and received 1,744 reports overall, a 25% increase on 2024-25.
Samuel Okafor, chief executive of Kick It Out, said racism was “deeply ingrained” in the game, but said it was also a “reflection of wider society”. His comments came as the organisation repeated its warning that stronger action is needed to deter abuse and ensure consequences for offenders.
Kick It Out, then called Let's Kick Racism Out of Football, was founded in 1993.
What did Kick It Out's latest figures show?
The latest figures showed increases across several forms of abuse in the 2025-26 season. Racism remained the most reported form of discrimination with 792 cases, up 19%, while homophobia rose by 46% to 203. Sexism increased by 12% and ableism by 20%, while antisemitism climbed 43% to 93 reports. There were also 60 incidents of Islamophobia, an 88% increase.
Okafor said the scale of the problem showed why stronger punishment is required.
“Tougher sanctions are needed, and I believe tougher sanctions will come, hopefully in the next few weeks, where people will face the consequences of their actions.”
Why are players and clubs saying more must be done?
The figures were not a surprise to Umar Ali, who plays for Route One Rovers, a semi-professional team in Bradford. During Ramadan last year, he said he was racially abused by a group of opposition spectators as he was waiting to come on as a substitute.
“It was our first game playing while we were fasting,” he said. “So obviously we were hungry that day and I was a bit less patient.
“Then when I was getting ready to come on, one of the fans said I should shave my beard off and that I looked like a paedophile.
“One of them picked up a child who was about six, seven years old, and said 'I bet your wife's the same age as this child'.”
Umar described the men as in their sixties. He said the comments were especially upsetting because of their age.
“It's quite distressing, because they're older than my dad,” he added. “They're my grandad's age, and they felt comfortable enough to stand there and make comments like that.”
Umar said the assistant referee heard the comments and told the referee, who he claims did not take any action. Police were eventually contacted and the spectators identified, but Umar has not been informed of an outcome.
How did the club and officials respond?
His manager Mohammed Patel was in the dugout during the match and said that, although the opposition coaching staff apologised on behalf of their fans, he felt the officials fell short and should have removed the spectators who were shouting racist and Islamophobic abuse at his players.
Patel said the day was emotional for the team and raised wider questions about why such abuse still happens.
“It was a really emotional day for us, because the question we asked ourselves after that game is 'Why is it still happening?' Some of the things that were said were absolutely horrific.
“In my opinion, more needs to be done from the top down. We're actively engaging and working with local FAs to try and navigate this problem, but it absolutely needs to be mandated.”
The Northern Counties East Football League fined the opposition club £300 and gave them nine disciplinary points, but Patel said that did not address the real problem.
“We've seen harsher punishments for violent conduct on the pitch or red cards, even administrative mistakes,” he added.
“Something as serious as this, we were absolutely not happy with the result.”
Patel has been lobbying the Football Association, but has not yet received a response.
“Precedents need to be set, harsher sanctions need to be introduced. This comes from the top down.”
Kick It Out also argued that the current response is not strong enough and highlighted other recent campaigning on the issue, including regulator proposals that it said would “put diversity on subs' bench” and warnings that abuse in English football is a “crisis”.
What has the Football Association said?
The Football Association said it had already introduced tougher sanctions for clubs and individuals, along with a new behaviour improvement programme and penalty points accumulation charges in the grassroots game.
In its statement, the FA said:
“We have introduced tougher sanctions for clubs and individuals, a new behaviour improvement programme, and penalty points accumulation charges in the grassroots game.
“This builds on the steps taken to allow for deductions of league points from clubs that are repeated offenders of serious misconduct.”
Kick It Out said the latest figures showed the need for more action across football, while players and managers at grassroots level continued to call for stronger enforcement and clearer consequences for abuse.
Key Facts
- Kick It Out recorded 1,255 incidents of discrimination in the 2025-26 season, up from 960.
- The organisation received 1,744 reports in 2025-26, a 25% rise on 2024-25.
- Racism was the most reported form of discrimination with 792 cases, followed by homophobia at 203.
- The Northern Counties East Football League fined the opposition club £300 and gave it nine disciplinary points.
- The Football Association said it had already introduced tougher sanctions and a new behaviour improvement programme.
