English Premier League to ban racist and abusive fans from all grounds

The Premier League has said it may ban racist and abusive fans from stadiums ahead of the 2021/22 season.

This development is part of a new enhanced anti-discrimination measures to clear any form of discriminatory behaviour in football and wider society.

With this drive, English Premier Leagu have agreed to enforce new League-wide punishments for any individual found to have behaved in a discriminatory or abusive way towards any club employee, player, match official, matchday steward or fan attending a Premier League match.

This will cover behaviour conducted in-person or online. Sanctions include permanent bans from attending not just League matches at the stadium of the club they support, but all Premier League matches.

Following any allegations of discriminatory behaviour, clubs will work together with the police to identify perpetrators.

For instances of online abuse, the Premier League will investigate each reported incident through its online discriminatory abuse reporting system, which was launched in June 2020.

The Premier League will also introduce enhanced training for matchday stewards to equip them to identify and respond to discriminatory abuse and assist in gathering evidence to ban perpetrators.

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters on Tuesday said: “The Premier League and our clubs condemn all forms of discriminatory and abusive behaviour. The commitment from all clubs to enforce League-wide bans demonstrates there is no place for discrimination of any kind in football and we will continue to work together to fight all forms of prejudice.

“Football is a diverse sport, which brings together communities from all backgrounds. We call on fans to come together with us and our clubs to help tackle discrimination by challenging and reporting abuse wherever they see it.”