Disgraced former Crawley Town boss John Yems has had his ban from football for discrimination extended to three years.
The 63-year-old was given a 17-month suspension in January after he was found guilty of using 'discriminatory language' and 'racist banter' towards his players.
It came following Sportsmail's revelations that a group of Crawley players had complained about their manager's language last April, with the League Two club dismissing him the following month.
An independent regulatory panel banned Yems until June 2024 after he admitted one charge and was found guilty of 11 others relating to comments that referenced either ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, religion, belief or gender between 2019 and 2022 - but claimed he was not a 'conscious racist'.
However, the FA had been pushing for a two-year ban, and said in January it 'fundamentally disagreed' with the panel's findings that this was not a case of 'conscious racism', and felt the sanction was insufficient - announcing it would appeal the decision.
And on Wednesday, an independent appeal board extended Yems's suspension from all football and football-related activity for three years up to and including January 5 2026, after the successful FA appeal.
Commenting on the decision, an FA spokesperson said: 'We welcome the verdict from the independent appeal board to suspend John Yems from all football-related activity until January 2026.
'This is the longest ever ban issued to a participant in English football for discrimination, and follows our decision to appeal and challenge the verdict of the independent Regulatory Commission after the first hearing in January.
'We strongly disagreed with their original sanction, as well as some of the elements of their judgement, which we fundamentally believed were not appropriate for the severity of the offences committed by John Yems.'
They continued: 'We are pleased that the independent Appeal Board ruled that specific findings from the Independent Regulatory Commission were unreasonable, as there were numerous examples of inherent and obvious racist language.
'This is a deeply distressing case for the victims involved, and we hope that the outcome of this appeal will help to bring some closure. We also hope that this will encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed discrimination in the game to report it.
'Everyone should be able to play the game in an environment that is free from discrimination and know that they can trust those who occupy positions of responsibility and power to lead a safe and positive culture, free from harm.
'Where discrimination happens, we will always use our very best efforts to ensure the right sanctions are imposed and, where appropriate, education is available to shift mindsets and continually improve the culture of football.'
Sportsmail revealed last April that Yems had been accused of calling Crawley's black players 'Zulu warriors' and describing Muslim members of the squad as 'terrorists', both of which were found to have occurred.
Among other extraordinary findings the FA panel concluded that Yems also:
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham had revealed after the initial 17-month ban in January that his organisation was exploring its legal options and the governing body has now confirmed an appeal.
'We are appealing against the sanction imposed by the independent panel on John Yems,' an FA statement had said at the time.
'We believe a longer sanction is appropriate. We are unable to comment further until the appeal is complete.'
In the original hearing with the independent regulatory commission back in November, Yems had 'categorically denied that he was in any way racist', according to the tribunal's report.
Then, in January, Yems bizarrely appeared on talkSPORT and refused to admit he had done anything wrong as he said: 'I wasn’t found to be racist, never used racist language with intent, if anybody needs an apology then I think I do.'