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FA chairman steps down for unacceptable words in front of Parliament

The FA chairman Greg Clarke steps down form his role for unacceptable words spoken in front of Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

Offense wording was used in a reference to black players when talking to MPs about diversity. Clarke used the term “coloured footballers” when talking to members of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee by video link.

It has also been announced that Peter McCormick will now step into the role as interim FA Chairman with immediate effect.

Clarke apologised after being prompted to say sorry by MP Kevin Brennan. He had been talking about racist abuse of players by trolls on social media.

Clarke, speaking at Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee meeting on Tuesday, was answering a question around the difficulty of gay players in the men’s game coming out because of social media backlash.

The FA chairman had said: “If I look at what happens to high-profile female footballers, to high-profile coloured footballers, and the abuse they take on social media… social media is a free-for-all.”

“If I said it, I deeply apologise for it,” Clarke replied.

“Secondly, I am a product of having worked overseas, I worked in the USA for many years, where I was required to use the term ‘people of colour’ sometimes because that was the product of their diversity legislation and positive discrimination format. Sometimes I trip over my words.”

A statement released on Twitter by The FA shortly after the hearing read: “Greg Clarke is deeply apologetic for the language he used to reference members of the ethnic minority community during the select committee hearing today.

“He acknowledged that using the term ‘coloured’ is not appropriate and wholeheartedly apologised during the hearing.”

Clarke was also criticised for referencing ‘differing career interests’ between people from south Asian and African-Caribbean backgrounds when he was asked what the FA was doing to improve diversity within the governing body.

“I was talking to the chair of a county FA from the west country. He has tried to now make sure he has representation within diverse communities,” Clarke said.

“(He told me) ‘I’m over-committed with South Asians, I’m not getting enough people from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds’.

“The BAME communities aren’t an amorphous mass. If you look at top-level football, the Afro-Caribbean community is over-represented versus the South Asian community.

“If you go to the IT department at the FA, there’s a lot more South Asians than there are Afro-Caribbeans. They have different career interests.”

The FA chairman discussed the environment in football that would await a male professional player who came out publicly as gay. In doing so, he used the phrase “life choice”, although it was unclear whether he was referring to sexuality itself or the decision such a player would make to come out, now you can see why he why he steps down following these comments in front of parliament.

“The real issue is once you run out in front of 60,000 people and you decided on Monday that you wanted to disclose your sexuality – and I would never pressure anybody to disclose their sexuality – what I would want to do is to know that anybody who runs out onto the pitch and says, ‘I’m gay. I’m proud of it and I’m happy. It’s a life choice, and I’ve made it because my life is a better place’, I’d like to believe and I do believe they would have the support of their mates in the changing room,” Clarke said.

“I believe we have things in place so that anybody who misbehaves in terms of homophobic or misogynistic or racist abuse, we will find them and we will ban them from football, we have the power.”

Greg Clarke said in a statement on the Football Association’s website: As a person who loves football and has given decades of service to our game, it is right that I put the interests of football first.

2020 has been a challenging year and I have been actively considering standing down for some time to make way for a new Chair now our CEO transition is complete and excellent executive leadership under Mark Bullingham is established.

My unacceptable words in front of Parliament were a disservice to our game and to those who watch, play, referee and administer it. This has crystallised my resolve to move on.

I am deeply saddened that I have offended those diverse communities in football that I and others worked so hard to include.

I would like to thank my friends and colleagues in the game for the wisdom and counsel they have shared over the years and resign from the FA with immediate effect.

Footballers and fans are now taking to social media as the FA chairman steps down for unacceptable words in front of Parliament…

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