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 footballers”, 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 immediately leave the position he has held since 2016. Clarke 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” 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.”
Quick GuideGreg Clarke's FA timeline
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4 September 2016
Clarke, previously chairman of the Football League for six years, replaces Greg Dyke at the FA.
27 September 2016
Sacks England manager Sam Allardyce after only one game in charge following comments made in an undercover newspaper sting.
16 October 2017
Comes under scrutiny for his role in the FA’s handling of Eni Aluko’s claim of racism against national women’s team manager Mark Sampson. Clarke talked about the “fluff of institutional racism” at a select committee hearing.
27 September 2018
Backs the plan to sell Wembley Stadium to Fulham owner Shahid Khan for £400m, but after the deal failed to win over the football public, Khan pulled out.
13 October 2020
Claimed in a published letter to the FA council that he only “participated in the early stages” of Project Big Picture, proposals to reshape the structure of English football. In fact Clarke initiated the process, invited the participants, was involved in all the meetings and development of the plans, and in resurrecting them in September.
27 October 2020
FA launches a new diversity code aimed at substantially increasing the number of black, Asian and mixed heritage recruits to senior leadership and coaching roles.
10 November 2020
Clarke resigns after making a series of discriminatory remarks at the select committee hearing.
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 said: “If I said it I deeply apologise for it”. His apology was immediately expanded upon by the FA in a social media post.
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 after 5pm Clarke announced he was stepping down.
“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.” The FA said in a statement: “Peter McCormick will step into the role as interim FA chairman with immediate effect and the FA Board will begin the process of identifying and appointing a new chair in due course.”
Sanjay Bhandari, the chief executive of anti-racist organisation Kick it Out, said of Clarke: “His use of outdated language to describe black and Asian people as ‘coloured’ is from decades ago and should remain consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Clarke’s departure could not have come at a more challenging time for English football’s governing body. Two weeks ago it launched a Football Leadership Diversity Code, seen as a landmark document that challenged football clubs to commit to hard targets for placing black Asian and minority ethnic people in senior roles. Seen as a landmark document, the code was also acknowledged as being a first attempt to tackle more deep set challenges for ethnic minorities within the game and society more broadly.
The FA is also currently in the process of making savings of £300m due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the loss of 124 jobs. Another former chair of the FA, David Bernstein, believed what Clarke had said was “symptomatic of an organisation that has just been too slow to reform”, and called for an independent regulator to help improve governance in the game.
“The expression ‘the fish rots from the head’ is a very appropriate one”, Bernstein said. “Any organisation needs to be properly structured, properly governed, have a proper degree of independence. When you have all those things in place, there’s a lot less chance of the organisation slipping up as the FA has on occasion and has again today.”
Labour’s shadow equalities secretary, Marsha de Cordova, said: “The comments made today were offensive and outdated.
“The FA must do much more than simply apologise – they should review all of their diversity programmes and ask whether they go far enough or fast enough.”