Kick It Out received a record 1,744 reports of discrimination across professional football, grassroots, and online spaces during the first year of its Football United strategy. Published on Tuesday, the charity’s Year One Impact Report attributes the increase to a rise in anti-immigrant language and greater public confidence in reporting abuse through new partnerships with organizations like Her Game Too, The Frank Soo Foundation, and Football v Homophobia.
Discrimination Breakdown Across Professional and Grassroots Football
Data compiled in the Impact Report shows increases across all major categories of football discrimination. Professional game reports climbed 41% to 636, grassroots reports jumped 41% to 458, and online abuse rose 5% to 650 incidents. Racism remained the most frequently reported offense with 792 total incidents, representing a 19% year-on-year increase and accounting for 45% of all reports.
Other forms of discrimination reached new five-year highs. Sexism rose 12% to 216 reports, homophobia climbed 46% to 203, antisemitism increased 43% to 93, ableism went up 20% to 89, and Islamophobia surged 88% to 60 reports. Kick It Out also logged 142 reports of discriminatory mass chanting, a 41% increase that included racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist slogans.
Anti-immigrant language featured prominently across all levels of the sport, with phrases such as “stop the boats” and “send them back” generating 39 reports during the 2025-26 season—matching the total number recorded over the preceding two years combined. Abuse targeting match officials also escalated sharply, with 97 discriminatory reports matching the cumulative total of the previous three seasons. Over a third of those official-focused reports involved sexism directed at women officials. Meanwhile, grassroots youth football targeting under-18 participants rose by a third to 248 reports, marking the fifth consecutive year that youth-level abuse has increased.
Reporting Partnerships and Educational Initiatives
The surge in reported cases reflects a deliberate expansion of reporting channels rather than a simple decline in football culture. More than 100 reports arrived via new partner networks during the 2025/26 season. Kick It Out launched its five-year “Football United” strategy in September 2025, establishing four core goals centred on inclusion, pitch representation, off-pitch leadership, and standing up to discrimination.
Samuel Okafor, chief executive of Kick It Out, said that while the figures demonstrate deep-seated discrimination during a period of rising social tension, they also show people are increasingly willing to challenge abuse. “Although our Impact Report shows a year of progress working alongside existing and new partners, we know that with further collaboration we can build on our policy, campaigning, education and reporting programmes to make the game more welcoming for everyone,” Okafor said.
Alongside reporting channels, education programs reached more than 11,000 participants. The Raise Your Game development program hosted 583 attendees, Fan Education engaged 148 participants, and a partnership with Guinness 0.0 delivered training to more than 3,000 Greene King staff members on identifying and responding to discrimination in pubs. Professional clubs also published workforce diversity data for the first time under FA Rule N, providing transparency on leadership representation.
Next Steps for the Football United Strategy
Kick It Out plans to expand its grassroots anti-discrimination education, grow the Raise Your Game initiative, and scale up Fan Education delivery with backing from the Premier League. The charity also contributed to proposals submitted to the Independent Football Regulator alongside more than 20 organizations, aiming to strengthen board-level accountability and establish diversity targets across club leadership.
“This is only year one of the strategy, so we know there is so much more to achieve, but we have ambitious plans for the coming season,” Okafor said. “We are determined to keep building a game where everyone is included, and everyone is united in tackling discrimination wherever it happens.”
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