John Yems
Yems in 2023
Personal information
Date of birth (1959-08-28) 28 August 1959 (age 64)[1]
Place of birth London, England[2]
Youth career
Crystal Palace
Reading
Millwall
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1994 Horsham
Managerial career
1992–1994 Horsham
2006–2007 Crawley Town (joint caretaker)
2008–2009 Exeter City (assistant)
2019–2022 Crawley Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Yems (born 28 August 1959) is an English professional football manager, who was most recently manager of Crawley Town.

Playing career

As a player, Yems was a member of the reserve teams of Crystal Palace, Reading and Millwall, before suffering a knee injury that forced him to retire.[3] Due to an injury crisis, he played for Horsham at centre-back whilst manager of the club.[3]

Coaching career

Whilst coaching Fulham's youth team (YTS), Yems took up the manager role at Horsham in December 1992 after manager Peter Evans was sacked following a 1–0 defeat at home to Petersfield United.[4][5][3] Whilst manager at Horsham, Yems chose to play himself for multiple matches due to an injury crisis.[3] Yems left the club four matches from the end of the 1993–94 season.[3] Yems had a spell coaching Dulwich Hamlet in the late 1990s.[6]

Yems had coaching roles at Fulham and Millwall before, in 2006, he was appointed as one of three joint caretaker managers at Crawley Town following the sacking of John Hollins. Yems was sacked at the end of that season,[7] and then joined Grays Athletic, initially as chief scout and becoming first team coach in October 2007.[8] He left the club by mutual consent in January 2008.[9] Yems was appointed as assistant manager at Exeter City in February 2008, but left in July 2009, since he lived in Sussex and did not wish to relocate.[10][11] In October 2009, Yems took on a scouting role for Torquay United.[12] Following a spell as a coach at Gillingham, Yems was appointed as football operations manager by Bournemouth in 2012, remaining until 2018, when the club stated that they could not afford to keep him.[13]

On 5 December 2019, Yems was appointed as manager of League Two side Crawley Town, after some time acting as a scout for several teams, including Newcastle United.[14] On 30 January 2020, he extended his contract at Crawley until the end of the 2022–23 season.[15] After winning three and drawing four of Crawley's seven matches in December 2020, Yems was nominated for the EFL League Two Manager of the Month award for December 2020, but lost out to Derek Adams of Morecambe.[16][17]

Racism case

On 23 April 2022, Yems was suspended by Crawley following “serious and credible accusations” that he used discriminatory language and behaviour towards his players.[18] On 4 May 2022, The Football Association announced they were performing an investigation into Yems' conduct,[19] after the Daily Mail published allegations from an unnamed player that Yems had used racial slurs towards black and Asian players, and that changing rooms in the training ground were racially segregated.[20] The following day, the Professional Footballers' Association revealed that it had started an investigation, after seven current Crawley Town players contacted them with allegations of racist language and behaviour at the club. This meant that there were three separate investigations into Yems' behaviour ongoing; from Crawley Town themselves, the FA and the PFA. Yems denied the accusations.[21] On 6 May 2022, Crawley Town confirmed that they had mutually agreed to part ways.[22][23] On 28 July 2022, Yems was charged by the FA with racial discrimination, accused of making sixteen comments that had a reference to either ethnic origin, race, nationality, gender or colour between 2019 and 2022.[24]

On 6 January 2023, Yems was found guilty of 12 charges and was banned from all football activity for 18 months, the longest-ever ban handed to an individual by the FA for racist abuse.[25] Four charges were not proven and a charge of enforcing racial segregation was dropped.[26] Later that month, a report released by the FA stated that Yems used "offensive, racist and Islamophobic" language and joked that a Muslim player was a terrorist.[27] Anti-racism charity Kick It Out declared Yems' verdict a "slap in the face to the victims" and stated they would be contacting the FA for an explanation of why the punishment was not more severe.[28] Kick It Out also criticised the independent FA panel's judgement that it was not a case of "conscious racism".[26] On 23 January, the FA announced that they would be appealing against the length of Yems' ban.[29]

The FA appeal was successful and on 19 April 2023, Yems was suspended from all football and football-related activity up to and including 5 January 2026.[30] This was the longest ever ban issued in English football for discrimination.[31]

Personal life

Yems lives in Horsham.[32]

Managerial statistics

As of 18 April 2022
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref.
P W D L Win %
Crawley Town 5 December 2019 6 May 2022 119 43 32 44 036.1 [33]
Total 119 43 32 44 036.1

References

  1. ^ Crawley Town F.C. [@crawleytown] (28 August 2020). "Head Coach John Yems turns 61 today! Happy birthday, Gaffer! #TownTeamTogether" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ "Crawley Town staff". 11 vs 11. AFS. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e ""I was an egotist who thought I was going to win the European Cup"". www.horshamfc.co.uk. Horsham F.C. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Petersfield United (N) - DL3". www.horshamfc.co.uk. Horsham F.C. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  5. ^ "East Thurrock United (A) - DL3". www.horshamfc.co.uk. Horsham F.C. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Dulwich Hamlet (N) - FR". www.horshamfc.co.uk. Horsham F.C. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  7. ^ Gurney, Tom (7 May 2007). "Crawley sack Yems". The Argus. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  8. ^ "Yems handed new Grays position". BBC Sport. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  9. ^ "Coach Yems makes Grays departure". BBC Sport. 28 January 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  10. ^ "Yems departs from St James Park". BBC Sport. 15 July 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  11. ^ "Exeter exit for Yems". Sky Sports. 15 July 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Yems to join staff at Plainmoor". BBC Sport. 8 October 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  13. ^ Cross, John (11 July 2018). "Bournemouth cash crisis leads to surprise exit from coaching team". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  14. ^ "John Yems: Crawley Town reappoint former manager until end of season". BBC Sport. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  15. ^ Allman, Tom (30 January 2020). "John Yems signs 3 year deal". www.crawleytownfc.com. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  16. ^ Stenning, Adam (5 January 2021). "Yems is nominated for manager of the month in run-up to Reds FA Cup tie with Leeds". The Argus. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Sky Bet League Two: December Manager and Player of the Month winners". www.efl.com. English Football League. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  18. ^ "Crawley suspend manager John Yems over 'credible' accusations of discriminatory language". BBC Sport. 23 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  19. ^ "FA probes discrimination claims against Crawley boss". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  20. ^ Dunford, Mark (4 May 2022). "Further details of allegations against John Yems revealed as new owners prepare to face fans". www.sussexexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  21. ^ "Crawley Town: Three separate investigations into racism allegations ongoing at League Two club". Sky Sports. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  22. ^ "CLUB STATEMENT : John Yems". www.crawleytownfc.com. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  23. ^ "Yems leaves Crawley in wake of racism claims" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  24. ^ "John Yems: Former Crawley manager charged by FA with racial discrimination". BBC Sport. 28 July 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  25. ^ "John Yems: Ex-Crawley Town manager banned for 18 months over racist abuse of players". BBC Sport. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  26. ^ a b "John Yems: FA disagrees that ex-Crawley Town boss' racist slurs 'not conscious racism'". BBC Sport. 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  27. ^ "John Yems: Ex-Crawley Town boss used highly offensive racist language to players, says FA report". BBC Sport. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  28. ^ "Yems racism ban 'slap in face to victims'". BBC Sport. 18 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  29. ^ "John Yems: FA to appeal against length of 18-month ban for ex-Crawley Town manager". BBC Sport. 23 January 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  30. ^ "John Yems' suspension increased following successful appeal from the FA". The FA. 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  31. ^ "Yems racism ban extended until 2026 after FA appeal". BBC Sport. 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  32. ^ "Yems backs Dermot to be a success". www.crawleytownfc.com. Crawley Town F.C. 29 April 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  33. ^ John Yems management career statistics at Soccerbase

External links

Crawley Town F.C. – managers
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