Greg Clarke was forced to quit as FA chairman in ignominious circumstances on Tuesday after a series of offensive gaffes to MPs left the reputation of his organisation seriously damaged.
The 63-year-old is to vacate his role immediately after his description of “coloured players”, amongst other remarks, caused shock and outrage in the world of football and beyond. The move comes just weeks after the FA sought to take the lead on inclusion within sport with the launch of its Football Leadership Diversity Code.
Following an emergency meeting of the FA board, it was announced that Clarke would be immediately departing from the position he has held since 2017. Clarke, 63, is also currently a vice-president at the international governing body Fifa.
Clarke had been summoned in front of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday to discuss his controversial role in Project Big Picture after reporting by the Guardian revealed he had been involved in greater depth, and for a longer period of time, than he had publicly claimed.
While Clarke defended his part in Project Big Picture, he separately went on to make a run of digressive answers to MPs, in which he used the term “coloured players” to describe black Asian and minority ethnic people and suggested that “different career interests” led South Asian people to choose careers in IT over sport. He also described a gay player coming out as a ‘life choice’ and recounted an anecdote about girl footballers being afraid to be hit by a ball.
Asked by the Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones about the absence of prominent gay footballers within the game, Clarke suggested that a concern about online abuse might prevent them from coming out.
Clarke said: “If I look at what happens to high profile female footballers, high profile coloured footballers and the abuse they take on social media . . . they take absolutely terrible abuse.”
In another answer to Davies-Jones, Clarke went on to say: “BAME communities are not an amorphous mass. If you look at top level football the Afro-Caribbean community is overrepresented compared to the south asian community. If you go to the IT department of the FA there’s a lot more South Asians than there are Afro-Caribbeans. They have different career interests.”
Clarke was forced to apologise for his remarks before the session had even finished. Asked to retract the word “coloured” by the committee member and Labour MP Kevin Brennan, Clarke did so saying, “If I said it I deeply apologise for it”. His apology was immediately expanded upon by the FA.
Conservative MP Julian Knight, the chair of the committee, said that Clarke was “right” to apologise but noted “this isn’t the first time the FA has come to grief over these issues”. In a previous session of the DCMS committee in 2017, when Clarke had been summoned to discuss racial discrimination in football, he described accusations of institutional racism at the FA as “fluff”.
As the afternoon passed a wave of disquiet both inside and outside the organisation only grew, and shortly before 5pm Clarke announced he was quitting.
“My unacceptable words in front of parliament were a disservice to our game and to those who watch, play, referee and administer it,” Clarke said. “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.” - Guardian
