Players to be given equality and diversity training

Every senior player in the Premier League and Football League will be obliged to attend at least one training session this season to receive guidance on racist and homophobic language, as well as advice on moral conduct.

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is organising the sessions, called The Senior Player Programme on Diversity and Equality. The PFA has written to the managers of all 92 clubs asking them to make sure players attend.

The sessions plan to highlight what sort of language is unacceptable, while also educating on where to draw a line under 'banter'. The meetings will also seek to encourage players to report incidents more often - whether they are victims themselves or witnesses of abuse.

Players will also be informed that new contracts will carry clauses making discriminatory abuse a gross misconduct offence, which could lead to sackings by employers.

Each session will last for 45 minutes and will be delivered by two tutors, with one tutor being a former professional player.

The programme has been developed by the PFA in conjunction with the FA, the League Managers' Association and the Premier League.