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Increase in reported cases to football's anti-discrimination campaigners

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Image: Tranmere players wear Kick It Out T-shirts last month

Figures revealed to Sky Sports News HQ show a 35 per cent increase in cases reported to football's anti-discrimination campaigners Kick It Out - with the professional game most affected.

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Kick It Out Chairman, Lord Ouseley says technology is helping in the fight against discrimination in football.

Cases of discrimination have leapt from 136 to 184, most of which are race related or relate to faith.

There has been a 65 per cent increase in incidents reported within the professional game - the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two - climbing from 43 to 71. This means that Kick It Out have received just four fewer incidents reported than the entire 2013-14 season.

The statistics cover the first half of the season - August 2014 until 28 December 2014 - and have been compared to the first half of the 2013-14 campaign. The percentage increase is expected to jump even higher for the entire season, with recent high-profile cases, such as the Chelsea fans on the Metro train in Paris who prevented a black man boarding the carriage, not currently included.

Kick It Out believe the increase is down, in part, to victims feeling more confident about reporting cases and their own app means people can come forward anonymously.

Kick It Out Chairman Lord Ouseley told Sky Sports News HQ: "We’re lucky that people are using their phones to capture incidents as they occur and make them known to the wider public, to Kick It Out. And we’re able to see that these things are happening. They reality is that they have always been happening but football is making progress."

Kick It Out director Roisin Wood added: "I think we’ve come a long way in the last number of years but I think we need to be vigilant the whole time. Moving forward we always need to make sure people feel comfortable about reporting.

"The steps that Chelsea took as a club in terms of identifying who those perpetrators were (in Paris) and to ban them I think gives people confidence. It’s a strong message for the club to make."

The report also shows there have already been 13 reports of sexism compared to just two incidents for the whole of last season. The level of grassroots reporting, however, has matched the amount at the midway point of last season with 34 incidents. 

Minister for Sport Helen Grant believes there is still much to do in order to tackle the problem - although she acknowledged the efforts made by Kick it Out and other within the game.

"These figures show that there is still hard work to be done to tackle racist, anti-semitic, homophobic and sexist abuse in the game," she said. "The rise in the number of incidents reported is a concern however it does also highlight that Kick It Out and the football authorities' zero tolerance approach at every level of the game is cutting through, with people not willing to stand-by and ignore or tolerate disgusting, deplorable abuse."

Kick It Out has helped launch Shapla Football Club in Bradford by running a community event with the aim of increasing Asian participation in football and tackling discrimination.

Abul Quasim - the other co-founder of Shapla FC - told Sky Sports News HQ he experienced racism in the lower leagues:

He said: "When I played in local Saturday and Sunday League football, yes, it could be an issue, there were times I faced discrimination and it could be quite rough. I’ve seen the bad side of things where people have been in fights and off the football field fighting going on after the game and it was daunting when I was younger."

Out of 63 cases closed across professional and grassroots football, 18 have been proven.

Kick It Out has received 73 incident reports related to social media, with 21 cases leading to action being taken.

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