Reporting hate is protecting the game.

In grassroots football, hate ruins the experience for everyone who’s there just to enjoy the game. But you don’t have to stand by and let it happen.

When you report it, we take action.

As our eyes and ears on the ground, we need you to step up by reporting abusive, aggressive or offensive behaviour every time it happens, whenever and wherever you experience it.

Only when you do your part can we do ours. 

We’re asking you tell us every time you see hate happening. When we know about it, we can take the toughest action to remove those who don’t behave.

When you report hate, we will take the steps needed to remove it. Together we can protect the game we love. 

In grassroots football, hate is verbal abuse, insulting gestures or prejudicial behaviour. Racism, sexism and homophobia are the most common hate incidents we hear about, but we want to hear about any form of discriminatory behaviour any time it happens. If it feels wrong to you, it will to others too.

Let us be clear, we will take the strongest action against those who ruin the game for others. Tough punishments for players, coaches and spectators – and anyone else – who behave in discriminatory ways include:

• Players will be removed from play
• Players will be suspended for games
• Clubs can have points deducted
• Clubs can have their ground closed
• Spectators will be asked to leave

Remember, reporting hate is the first step to removing it and protecting the game we love.

We need you to report abusive behaviour every time you experience it. Only then will we know it’s happened. Only then can we act to remove it.

You can report hate anonymously if you wish, or you can give us your name along with your evidence. This gives us a better chance of successfully punishing offenders. When you do your part, you can rely on us to do ours.

You can report anything you don’t like at any time, even after the match has finished. To make this easy, here are four ways of telling us:

• To report it to The FA click here
• To report it to Kick It Out click here
• Report it to your County FA
• Report it to a Match Official

If you are a victim of hate or discriminatory abuse, we make specialist support available to you. Funded by The FA, this a range of mental health and emotional well-being services delivered by the charity Sporting Chance.

You will have access to between one and six counselling sessions, with extra sessions considered on an exceptional basis. These are face-to-face within 45 minutes of where you live, or by online platforms. The sessions:

• start with an assessment of how the incident has affected you, followed by a confidential and safe talking space with a skilled therapist
• then focus on assisting you in contextualising the incident in the context of your broader life
• will be followed by teaching on self-care