QPR and Crawley sued for £11.1m by former player who claims they did not protect him

Amrit Bansal-McNulty is claiming QPR and Crawley failed to protect him from alleged racist bullying that he says destroyed his career

Queens Park Rangers and Crawley Town are being sued for more than £11m by a former player who is claiming they failed to protect him from alleged racist banter that he says destroyed his career.

The Championship club are joint defendants with Crawley in a claim currently being heard at the Central London Employment Tribunal, brought by the former Northern Ireland Under-21 international Amrit Bansal-McNulty, who is suing for £11.1m for a loss of opportunity as a footballer and personal injury. Both clubs have denied wrongdoing.

Bansal-McNulty’s claim is based on his experiences during the 2021-22 season while on loan at Crawley, where he alleges he was racially abused by the then manager, John Yems.

Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.

If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.

In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications.

Turn on sport notifications.

The 66-year-old has just finished serving a three-year ban, the longest imposed for discrimination by the FA, after being found guilty of 11 charges of using discriminatory language at Crawley.

Four other charges against Yems were dismissed and one was admitted in a case that led to the FA successfully appealing to extend his 17-month suspension, as well as challenging the findings of the original commission that he “was not a conscious racist”.

Bansal-McNulty has given evidence to the tribunal along with Yems and several witnesses from QPR, including the long-serving academy director Alex Carroll, the former technical directors Les Ferdinand and Chris Ramsey, and the former manager Mark Warburton.

Further submissions will be made to the tribunal next week, with a decision on liability expected this month. If that is in the player’s favour a second hearing would determine the level of damages.

Bansal-McNulty’s case is based on his contention that QPR and Crawley failed to protect him from abuse by Yems, which he claims led to the end of his professional career and significant psychological damage. In documents submitted to the tribunal, seen by the Guardian, he is claiming for a net award of £6.1m, with the gross figure £11.1m before tax.

His legal team produced as part of their evidence a screenshot of a text message from QPR’s former professional development coach Paul Hall, in which he compared Bansal-McNulty favourably with two other players he worked with at Loftus Road, Eberechi Eze and Ilias Chair.

Bansal-McNulty joined QPR at 14 but never made a first-team appearance for the club. After making four appearances in League Two for Crawley, and three across the FA Cup and EFL Cup, he was released by QPR when his contract expired on his return from Crawley at the end of the 2021-22 season. His only appearances since have been for Waltham Abbey in the Isthmian League North Division.

Crawley suspended Yems after allegations of racist behaviour were made by several squad members in April 2022, which led to him leaving the club by mutual consent the following month and being charged by the FA with 16 counts of using discriminatory language.

One of the charges upheld involved Yems calling Bansal-McNulty a “curry muncher” and asking whether he was unhappy that pizzas given to the players by a sponsor did not include “curry pizza”.

Much of Bansal-McNulty’s claim centres on a telephone conversation he had with Ramsey when the allegations against Yems emerged in April 2022.

The player claims he called Ramsey to complain about Yems’s “racist banter” and was disappointed by Ramsey response, alleging that the then QPR sporting director told him such language was commonplace in the lower divisions and indicated he would have to learn to deal with it.

In response Ramsey told the tribunal that Bansal-McNulty had complained to him about Yems’s banter, but denied being told that it was racist.

Ramsey, who spent nine years in a variety of roles at QPR, including manager, has coached England age-group teams and was awarded an MBE for services to football and diversity in sport, has denied playing down the impact of Bansal-McNulty’s experiences at Crawley.

Yems told the tribunal that he had used the words “curry pizza” but described it as a joke and an attempt to raise Bansal-McCarthy’s spirits in the dressing room.

During the course of his ban Yems has undertaken diversity training in an attempt to educate himself about the potential impact of the language he has used.

Two other former Crawley players were listed to give evidence against Yems, but only one beyond Bansal-McNulty appeared before the tribunal.

Several Crawley players reported Yems to the Professional Footballers’ Association and testified against him at the FA hearing, but Bansal-McNulty is the only one to have taken legal action.

QPR and Crawley have been approached for comment.