The Football Association celebrated the rise in the number of reported incidents of discrimination since the start of the football season yesterday, but Kick It Out took a different stance.

The FA have seen an increase of 70 per cent while the anti-discrimination group’s numbers have risen by more than a third.

FA head of judicial services Mark Ives said that the rise is more to do with people being confident enough to report the abuse, rather than an increase in the number of incidents.

He said: “It may seem strange to say that it is good to see cases increase from 477 last year at grassroots level to probably 800 this year but we believe anecdotally the problem itself is not increasing and that this represents people feeling more confident about reporting abuse.”

However, Kick It Out director Roisin Wood believes that the number of complaints does not reflect the true scale of the issue, describing those responsible for any form of discrimination as “a stubborn element.

“The reality is the level of complaints submitted to us this season, despite showing a leap from 136 to 184 when compared to the midway point of the 2013-14 campaign, barely scratch the surface of a widespread problem.”

One of the biggest problems for Wood and Kick It Out is attempting to deal with the ever-increasing complaints of hate crime posts on social media, describing the problem as “a massive task.”

Kick it Out chair Herman Ouseley believes the rise shows people are now more willing to come forward.

“It is about building the confidence amongst people to trust the system to investigate complaints and to deliver an outcome,” he said.

“The purpose of publishing statistics is to show that is happening because more people are inclined to take that chance and complain because they believe the system will work and that they’re not going to either get their head kicked in or waste their time, which I think is what people felt in the past.

“That’s not to say we don’t think there’s not a high level of prejudice around in British society and a lot of people like to play out their hate and their prejudices at football matches.”

The figures have been revealed at a troubling time in the sport as the British Transport Police continues to examine mobile phone footage of alleged racist and abusive behaviour by Chelsea fans after Sunday’s League Cup final victory.

Four men were asked by police to leave a train from London to Manchester at Stoke station.

Last month a group of Chelsea fans were filmed in France on the Paris Metro refusing to allow a black man — Souleymane S — on to a train carriage and then chanting “we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.”

The club handed out lifetime bans to five men.