Kick It Out received a record 1,744 discrimination reports across professional football, grassroots, and online during the first year of its Football United strategy.
The organisation says a rise in anti-immigrant language contributed to the increase, while improved reporting relationships with groups including Her Game Too, The Frank Soo Foundation and Football v Homophobia also gave more people confidence to report incidents.
More than 100 reports were received through those new channels during the 2025/26 season.
Kick It Out says the increase in reports should not be viewed solely as a deterioration in football’s culture, pointing to greater confidence among communities to report discrimination and improved relationships with partner organisations.
The number of reporting partnerships is expected to increase during the 2026/27 season.
Samuel Okafor, Kick It Out’s chief executive, said: “At a time of rising discrimination and where we need action to make the game more inclusive and representative of all communities, football must be more united to take on its challenges.
“Although our Impact Report shows a year of progress working alongside existing and new partners, we know that with further collaboration we can build on our policy, campaigning, education and reporting programmes to make the game more welcoming for everyone.”
Kick It Out’s Year One Impact Report, published on Tuesday, highlights the scale of the challenge facing football as the organisation attempts to make the game more inclusive and representative.
The report covers the first year of Football United, a five-year strategy launched in September 2025 with four key goals: everyone is included; everyone is represented on the pitch; everyone can lead off the pitch; and everyone stands up to discrimination.
The organisation also highlighted several other developments during the first year of its strategy.
More than 11,000 people accessed Kick It Out education programmes, while 583 people attended its Raise Your Game development programme and 148 took part in Fan Education.
A partnership with Guinness 0.0 saw Kick It Out take its work into pubs, with more than 3,000 Greene King staff receiving education on how to recognise and respond to discrimination.
The start of the 2025/26 season also saw professional clubs publish workforce diversity data for the first time under FA Rule N, providing greater visibility of representation in leadership positions across the game.
Kick It Out says it worked with more than 20 organisations to submit proposals to the Independent Football Regulator, contributing to increased board-level accountability on equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as representation targets for club boards and senior leadership positions.
The organisation also worked with partners on issues including online abuse, sexism and misogyny, faith-based discrimination and inclusion for underrepresented communities.
Okafor added: “This is only year one of the strategy, so we know there is so much more to achieve, but we have ambitious plans for the coming season where we will expand grassroots anti-discrimination education, increase Fan Education delivery with support from the Premier League and grow Raise Your Game.
“We are determined to keep building a game where everyone is included, and everyone is united in tackling discrimination wherever it happens.”
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