Reports of antisemitism in football rose by 43 per cent in one year, an investigation into discrimination in the game has found.
The charity Kick It Out received details of Jew-hate 93 times in the 2025-26 season, compared to 65 in the 2024/25 season.
There were 16 reports of antisemitism at grassroots under-18s level, the highest number for five years, 24 in the professional game, and 53 on social media.
Kick It Out recorded a new high in discrimination of all kinds in the professional game, online and at grassroots level, with a total of 1,744 reports for the 2025/26 season, 25 per cent up on the previous campaign.
The group said the figures “show discrimination remains a serious and growing challenge across the sport at a time of political and social tension”.
Discrimination of every type in local amateur under-18s football is on the up for the fifth straight season, a total of 248 reports representing an increase of a third on the season before.
Almost every age group from under 9’s to under 18’s saw record numbers of reports of discrimination.
There was a 38% increase in racism reported, a 90% increase in homophobia, and 15 times as many reports of antisemitism.
Rude and abusive language, threatening behaviour and physical assault was up 44 per cent.
In 2025/26 there were 16 reports of antisemitism at grassroots level, compared to just one in 2024/25.
For 2023/24, the figure was 14, in 2022/23 it was 2 and there were no reports in 2021/22.
Kick It Out, which fights against discrimination in sport, found that world events such as the October 7 attack appeared to have an impact.
It said: “Many incidents reported to Kick It Out over the last few seasons can be linked to domestic and world events and responses to them.
"Examples include the Supreme Court ruling on gender leading to The FA’s ban on transgender women in the women’s game, leading to a spike in transphobic abuse.
"The sensationalism of immigration by parts of the media and certain political parties has coincided with an increase in racist anti-immigrant reports.
"The 7th October attacks in 2023 that escalated the Israel Palestine conflict led to a sharp rise in Antisemitic and Islamophobic reports.
“However, correlation does not imply causation. It's almost impossible to directly link the reasons behind an incident back to a specific event or headline.
"Nonetheless, the similarities between timings of these headlines, and the numbers of incidents reported add weight to the belief that “what happens in the world, gets played out on the pitch”. “
Kick It Out’s chief executive officer Samuel Okafor said: “These figures show that discrimination remains deeply embedded across the game at a time when we’re also seeing rises in hate crime and divisive political rhetoric in Britain.
“They also show that people are more willing to stand up to abuse when they see it, and it’s encouraging to see professional players set that example last season.
“While we recognise that there is a lot of good work ongoing in football to tackle discrimination, we will continue to work with football authorities, clubs, leagues, regulators and government to ensure we match the courage shown to report abuse with clear and consistent action so that football is welcoming to everyone.”
Racism remained the most reported form of discrimination, with 792 reports, up 19% year-on-year. Reports of sexism rose 12% to 216, homophobia rose 46% to 203, ableism rose 20% to 89, and Islamophobia rose 88% to 60.
Kick It Out received 142 reports of discriminatory mass chanting during the season, a 41% increase on last year and the highest number recorded.
The organisation also recorded a rise in reports involving anti-immigrant language, with terms such as “stop the boats” and “send them back” reported at all levels of the game.
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