Highest annual figure since records began in 2015, the body says, with a record share of cases resolved and more perpetrators sanctioned than ever before.
Kick It Out logged 1,744 discrimination incidents across the professional and grassroots game in the first year of its three-year Football United strategy — the highest annual figure since records began in 2015.
The body attributes part of the increase to improved awareness and easier reporting mechanisms, meaning the year-on-year jump does not, on its own, reflect more incidents occurring. A record share of cases were resolved, Kick It Out said, and a record number of perpetrators received sanctions.
The figures cover English professional football and the grassroots tier. The organisation also pointed to measurable progress in workforce diversity at professional clubs, and to the introduction of new equality, diversity and inclusion roles at several organisations — structural changes the body is treating as markers of progress alongside the raw incident count, and the kind of operational shifts it says will outlast the headline number.
ESPN's coverage of the report frames discrimination as "deeply embedded" in the game's culture, a reading Kick It Out's own data supports.
Football United runs through 2027. The year-one figures are now the benchmark against which the body will measure the final two years of the strategy, both on resolution rates and on the rollout of EDI infrastructure across clubs.
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