The Premier League is today announcing a four-year update on its No Room For Racism Action Plan, showing the progress being made to increase diversity across all areas of football. It also highlights the League’s ongoing commitment to tackling discrimination and supporting players and others within the game who suffer discriminatory abuse.
The Action Plan was launched in 2021, outlining a series of targets and commitments aimed at creating greater access to opportunities and career progression for Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups in football, along with steps to eradicate racial prejudice.
The update shows progress being made across all six pillars of the Action Plan, including measures against online abuse, ongoing work within schools and communities, and improving pathways for players, coaches and others working within the game from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
The League, working with football partners and clubs, runs programmes to increase opportunities for coaches and players from under-represented groups. This is resulting in more coaches from ethnically diverse backgrounds gaining full-time positions with clubs, while thousands of children are being engaged through the South Asian Action Plan.
All Premier League matches between 5 and 14 April will be dedicated to No Room For Racism.
During this period, the League and clubs celebrate diversity on and off the pitch and demonstrate how it makes the game stronger, while reinforcing the message that discrimination will not be tolerated in football or wider society.
Players will take the knee before kick-off at these matches to demonstrate unity against racism.
Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said: “Football should be a welcoming place for everyone and this is hugely important for the Premier League and our clubs.
“While we acknowledge that more can be done, I am pleased that the four-year update on our No Room For Racism Action Plan shows progress continues to be made in key areas, such as developing more pathways for people from ethnically diverse backgrounds within football.
“The League and our clubs will continue to work hard to ensure more opportunities are available. There is no doubt that diversity makes the game stronger and has a positive impact on and off the pitch.
“I am saddened that we are still witnessing completely unacceptable discriminatory abuse targeted at players. We are fully committed to supporting players and their families in every way we can, as well as working with authorities around the world to try to bring those responsible to justice.”
No Room For Racism Action Plan four-year update
- 3,000+ cases of online discriminatory abuse have been investigated by the Premier League’s specialist team since 2020, with reports of racist abuse declining year on year.
- 93 per cent of coaches who have participated in the League’s inclusive coaching programmes are now working in full-time roles within professional football.
- 20 per cent of the League’s workforce is from ethnically diverse backgrounds (up from 12 per cent in 2021), surpassing the 2026 target of 18 per cent, as well as two Board members (40 per cent of the Board).
- 3,000+ children, and more than 400 grassroots coaches, have engaged in the South Asian Action Plan, with 24 Premier League and EFL clubs involved.
- 15,000+ teachers use Premier League Primary Stars’ No Room For Racism education resources, engaging more than 475,000 pupils .
- 27 clubs are involved in the Premier League Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard, with 18 at Advanced level.
Stand against racism and discriminatory abuse
The Premier League and clubs remain committed to tackling discriminatory abuse, and tough sanctions are in place for anybody found guilty. Punishments include automatic stadium bans and legal prosecution.
The League’s specialist team supports players and others working within the game who experience online abuse with investigations, while a combination of platform filtering, monitoring activities and real-world sanctions has helped drive down the number of reports received from players.
The reporting system has since been made available to clubs to host on their websites, and fans can also report any racist abuse they see directly.
As part of the League’s wide-ranging community work, No Room For Racism education resources are made available to all primary schools in England and Wales through the Premier League Primary Stars programme.
