Troy Townsend believes Kick It Out's latest report on the amount of racism and other types of discriminatory abuse in football is only the tip of the iceberg, particularly at the grassroots level.

Townsend, the equality charity's head of development, described the situation in amateur and youth football as "lawless", with "horrendous" abuse occurring even in the youngest age-groups.

They also pledged to review how clubs sanction and educate offenders, look again at the list of sanctions available to the FA, improve stewarding, make it easier for fans to make clubs and the authorities aware of incidents and further develop their community and schools programmes.

Additionally, the three football bodies asked the minister and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to lead a working group on how to involve social media companies more in the fight against discrimination, an issue that has frustrated Kick It Out.

"It's hard work – look at the hate speech that is allowed on those platforms," said Townsend.

"We talk regularly to them and we pass on information but I don't see enough action. I don't seem them saying we need to stamp that out.

"I haven't heard anything coming out from those social media companies that tells me we are going to be in a better place in six or 12 months' time."