While grassroots football is thriving, poor behaviour continues to be an issue. While the vast majority of games are played with respect, offenses like racism, sexism, abusive language and even assault clearly have a negative impact on others’ enjoyment of the game.

Tackling poor behaviour is a responsibility we all share. Our role is to ensure that punishments match the offence and to remove offenders to protect the game we love. A good example is the 535 years’ worth of bans we handed out last season for offences against match officials.

When you report incidents of hate, we can take the strongest actions needed to send a clear message: there’s no space for hate in grassroots football. Your reports enable us to take actions like those detailed below, ensuring those who have proven misconduct charges against them are dealt with appropriately.

Some of the steps being taken to tackle misconduct include:

Watch our videos to hear from people and clubs who have been sanctioned. They share their stories, talking about the impact, what they learnt and what support they’ve had to prevent it happening again.

Details of all sanction ranges can be found in the Grassroots Discipline Guide, available here.

If you’d like to find out more about the FA Rules detailing Misconduct, you can click here to be taken to the online FA handbook.