English FA unhappy with panel’s verdict on banned coach

LONDON (AP) — English soccer’s governing body has criticized the findings of an independent panel which concluded that a lower-league coach banned for 15 months for using discriminatory language toward his players was “not a conscious racist.” John Yems is the former manager of fourth-tier Crawley Town. He admitted to one charge and was found guilty of 11 others relating to comments made from 2019-22 that referenced ethnic origin, color, race, nationality, religion, belief or gender. Yems was found to have used Islamophobic language as well as racial slurs and stereotypes toward black players. The independent panel sided with Yems’ lawyers who argued he was not a racist and neither did he “ever intend to make racist remarks.”