FA chairman Greg Clarke is clinging to his job as pressure mounts on him to resign after a disastrous car-crash grilling by MPS.
The chief was forced into TWO public apologies after a series of diversity gaffes led to him being blasted by black and ethnic minorities.
Greg Clarke has been in his role with the Football Association for four yearsCredit: Twitter @FAspokesperson
The FA was forced to issue Clarke’s apology shortly after his comments
The Wembley head’s virtual appearance in front of the DCMS Select Committee left the FA scrambling to shore up his position after a string of PR own goals.
Clarke was discussing the need for diversity efforts to continue within football when he used the term ‘coloured footballers’.
That was in the context of a question about the lack of elite level gay players.
Clarke told Labour’s Alex Davies-Jones: “I don’t know why.
“But I look at what happens to high profile female footballers, high profile coloured footballers, and the abuse they take on social media, which is a free for all.
“Women and black players take terrible vile abuse from racist and misogynists. Why would you voluntarily sign up for that abuse?”
Within minutes, Clarke was taken to task by another Labour MP, Kevin Brennan, who asked him to apologise for his language.
The embattled FA chairman replied: “If I said that I do apologise for it. I’m a product of working overseas where I was required to use the term ‘people of colour’ because that was a product of their diversity legislature. Sometimes I trip over my words.”
That was not good enough as Clarke came under fire from former Spurs and England striker Darren Bent, who said: “Slip of the tongue was it? Awful, just awful.”
Clarke is now facing serious pressure and the FA was forced into doubling down on his apology with a further statement.
A Wembley spokesman said: “Greg Clarke is deeply apologetic for the language he used to reference members of the ethnic minority community during the select committee hearing today.”
But Clarke was also criticised for other comments during his grilling.
These included his apparent suggestion that being gay was a ‘life choice’, stating that the south Asian community was more interested in working in the FA IT department than becoming players or coaches and reporting a comment from a youth coach that girls did not want to be goalkeepers because they did not like the ball being kicked ‘hard’ at them.
Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick It Out, slammed the ‘outdated’ comments.
Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick It Out, slammed the ‘outdated’ commentsCredit: PA:Press Association
He added: “I was particularly concerned by the use of lazy racist stereotypes about South Asians and their supposed career preferences.
“It reflects similar lazy stereotypes I have heard have been spouted at club academy level. “Being gay is not a ‘life choice’ as he claimed too.
“The casual sexism of saying ‘girls’ do not like balls hit at them hard, is staggering from anyone, let alone the leader of our national game. It is completely unacceptable.”
It comes just two weeks after the FA launched a new Diversity Code featuring specific recruitment targets for all clubs.
The 63-year-old has also been guilty of making similar race-related gaffes in the past.
Clarke infamously described institutional racism as ‘fluff’ during the DCMS select committee in 2017 into the FA’s handling of the Eni Aluko/Mark Sampson affair.
Julian Knight, the chair of the DCMS Committee, said in response on Twitter: “It’s right that Greg Clarke apologised before the Committee, however, this isn’t the first time that the FA has come to grief over these issues. It makes us question their commitment to diversity.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
