The FA has today published its first Annual Grassroots Disciplinary Review, providing an insight into all misconduct types which were overseen by The FA’s Grassroots Discipline Team during the 2022/23 season.
The Review, which covers Step 5 and below of the men’s football pyramid and Step 3 and below of the women’s football pyramid, provides a detailed breakdown of discriminatory conduct across the season, in addition to analysis concerning serious offences against a match official, assaults committed by a participant on a participant, and general misconduct.
This data will now be published each year as part of The FA’s ongoing commitment to ensuring greater transparency across the grassroots game, in an effort to help improve behaviour and to increase confidence in the reporting process for incidents of serious misconduct.
During the 2022/23 season, there were 3,636 allegations of serious misconduct – a 9% increase on the previous season – with 82% of charges being proven. There was also a 10% increase in the number of allegations of discrimination, with the average sanction for proven charges being a seven-match suspension.
Overall, the average number of days from a case being opened to an investigation being closed was 44 days, which is a 17% improvement on the previous season and is a result of The FA’s ongoing efforts to make the investigative process smoother and to bring perpetrators of serious misconduct to justice faster.
The full Review for the 2022-23 season can be found here.
Following consultation with key stakeholders across the game, The FA has introduced pioneering sanctions in recent months to address serious misconduct across grassroots football, including points deductions, ground closures, and the trial of body cams for match officials across selected areas in the grassroots game.
This was followed by the launch of The FA’s Enough is Enough campaign to raise awareness of discriminatory behaviour in grassroots football and the significant consequences that will face perpetrators of hate. Aimed at grassroots players, coaches, parents, and supporters, the campaign makes clear to everyone involved in the game what behaviours are deemed as discriminatory, and focuses on the importance of reporting of incidents, highlighting the different ways to do this through match officials, The FA, Kick It Out and local County FAs.
Furthermore, The FA and Kick It Out recently collaborated to publish a joint action plan to proactively tackle incidents of discrimination and serious misconduct in grassroots football. The action plan follows new research that was commissioned by both organisations to help identify ways to improve reporting, awareness and handling of incidents of this nature within the grassroots game.
FA Senior Discipline Manager, Fraser Williamson, said: "Providing this level of transparency is really important to us so that everyone can have a better understanding of the levels of serious misconduct across the game. It also makes clear that we take all allegations of this nature very seriously and that we will take action against offenders. We know that incidents of serious misconduct are on the rise across grassroots game, however we’re clear that this will not be tolerated and that perpetrators will face consequences. We’ve recently implemented a number of interventions across our game to help improve the culture and behaviour of participants, both on the pitch and on the sidelines, and we will continue to do all we can to ensure our game is safe and welcoming for all."
