British anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said it received a record number of reports across English football in the 2025-26 season, with recorded incidents surpassing 1,000 for the first time.
According to Kick It Out’s annual report, reported incidents in both professional and grassroots football have each risen by 41 per cent, while online reports have climbed by five per cent. In total, there were 1,744 reports to the charity across all three spaces.
Kick It Out said that the numbers “show discrimination remains a serious and growing challenge across the sport at a time of political and social tension, but that record reporting numbers suggest a continued willingness to call it out”.
Racism was the most-reported form of discrimination, accounting for 45 per cent of the reports, while the number of reports of sexism, homophobia, Antisemitism, ableism and Islamophobia all hit record highs.
In a statement to The Athletic, a Premier League spokesperson said: “The Premier League and our clubs condemn all forms of discrimination, and we encourage fans and players to challenge and report abuse wherever they see it.
“Tackling discriminatory abuse is a priority for the Premier League, and we have a range of important initiatives in place, such as our expert monitoring in stadiums through our Matchday Observer Programme, our flagship No Room For Racism initiative and our unmatched resources dedicated to tracking and tackling online abuse.
“One incident of discriminatory abuse is one too many, which is why we work closely with our clubs, expert partners and relevant authorities to ensure they are dealt with as swiftly and severely as possible. This can include tough sanctions including stadium bans and legal prosecution, which can impact education and employment opportunities, and could lead to custodial sentences.”
A spokesperson for the English FA said that tackling discrimination has been a “core priority” for the governing body and “are focused on addressing the most serious cases.
“These include discrimination, threats, physical contact or assaults on match officials, and player-on-player assaults,” the spokesperson said. “While these incidents only occur in 0.09 per cent of all grassroots football matches annually, we recognise the significant impact they have on those involved.
“To address this, 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 it “continues to campaign for greater accountability from social media firms” following a season where several Premier League players were subject to online abuse.
The Premier League condemned “vile” and “abhorrent” abuse directed towards Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana and Burnley’s Hannibal Mejbri in February after players shared screenshots of messages containing racist abuse. Both clubs also condemned the incidents.
Fofana and Mejbri both shared images of online racist abuse during the 2025-26 season (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
The following day, Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Tolu Arokodare received racist messages, which his club described as “abhorrent and unlawful”, while Sunderland winger Romaine Mundle was also subject to online racist abuse.
In April, Tottenham Hotspur said it had reported online racist abuse of defender Kevin Danso to London’s Metropolitan Police, adding that: “We have heard and seen vile, dehumanising racism. Behaviour that is without doubt a criminal offence. It will not be tolerated.”
Kick It Out also said that it received 39 reports involving anti-immigrant language, more than the combined total (37) in the 2024-25 and 2023-24 seasons. Terms such as “stop the boats” and “send them back” were reported at all three levels.
Reports of abuse towards match officials also rose to 97 last season, the same amount as in the last three campaigns combined, with more than a third of reports being sexist abuse towards women officials.
“These figures show that discrimination remains deeply embedded across the game at a time when we’re also seeing rises in hate crime and divisive political rhetoric in Britain,” Kick It Out chief executive officer Samuel Okafor said in a statement.
“But they also show that people are more willing to stand up to abuse when they see it, and it’s encouraging to see professional players set that example last season.
“While we recognise that there is a lot of good work ongoing in football to tackle discrimination, we will continue to work with football authorities, clubs, leagues, regulators and government to ensure we match the courage shown to report abuse with clear and consistent action so that football is welcoming to everyone.”
