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FA President Greg Clarke has apologized for referring to “footballers of color” when giving testimony to MPs.
Clarke apologized to Parliament after describing the BAME players as “footballers of color” while testifying at a meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee on Tuesday.
Clarke was answering a question about how difficult it was for gay players in the men’s game to come out because of the social media backlash.
Clarke had said: “If I look at what happens to high profile female footballers, high profile female footballers of color, and the abuse they receive on social media … social media is free for everyone.”
The FA said Clarke was deeply apologetic, while Clarke says he sometimes ‘stumbles over his words’
A few minutes later, DCMS committee member Kevin Brennan MP asked Clarke if she wanted to drop the use of the word “colored.”
“If I did, I deeply apologize for it,” Clarke replied.
“Second, I am a product of having worked abroad, I worked in the US for many years, where I was asked to use the term ‘people of color’ sometimes because it was a product of their diversity legislation and their affirmative action format. Sometimes I trip over my words. “
A statement posted on Twitter by the FA shortly after the hearing read: “Greg Clarke deeply apologizes for the language he used to refer to members of the ethnic minority community during today’s select committee hearing.
“He acknowledged that using the term ‘colored’ is inappropriate and apologized wholeheartedly during the hearing.”
Clarke was also criticized for referring to “different professional interests” among people of South Asian and African-Caribbean origin when asked what the FA was doing to improve diversity within the governing body.
“I was talking to the president of the Football Association from a county in the west of the country. Now he has tried to make sure he has representation in various communities,” Clarke said.
“(He told me) ‘I am too committed to South Asians, I am not getting enough people of Afro-Caribbean origin.’
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“The BAME communities are not an amorphous mass. If you look at high-level football, the Afro-Caribbean community is over-represented compared to the South Asian community.
“If you go to the IT department at the FA, there are a lot more South Asians than Afro-Caribbean people. They have different professional interests.”
Later, Clarke spoke about the environment in soccer that would await a male professional player who came out publicly gay. In doing so, he used the phrase “life choice”, although it was unclear whether it was referring to sexuality itself or the decision that player would make to come out of the closet.
“The real problem is that once you stand in front of 60,000 people and on Monday you decided that you wanted to reveal your sexuality, and I would never pressure anyone to reveal their sexuality, what I would like to do is know that anyone who runs into the field and says, “I’m gay. I am proud of it and I am happy. It’s a life choice, and I did it because my life is a better place, “I would like to believe and I do believe that they would have the support of their teammates in the locker room,” Clarke said.
“I think we have things in place so that anyone who misbehaves in terms of homophobic, misogynistic or racist abuse, we will find it and ban it in football, we have the power.”
DCMS President: I accept my apologies … but is Clarke the right man to lead FA?
In an interview with Sky Sports News After the apology, DCMS Select Committee Chairman Julian Knight MP questioned whether Clarke was the right man to lead the FA.
He said: “The question is really, if someone like Mr. Clarke uses such unfortunate phrases and has used unfortunate phrases in the past and has been shown to have trouble with some of these issues, whether or not he is the right person to carry AF when he has to deal with all these problems.
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“If someone apologizes and is sincere, I think in life you should accept that apology and move on.
“However, the issue that the Football Association has highlighted on our select committee in the past cannot be ignored, based on Eni Aluko’s evidence, [it] It has form in this area and I think it has disappointed a lot of the football community for many years.
“Now he seems to be getting better. A lot of that good and that good communication was overcome with the use of that phraseology and you have to wonder if, frankly, he’s the right person in terms of at least communicating the mission of the FA.”
In 2017, following a lengthy legal dispute, former England player Aluko received an apology from the FA for discriminatory comments made by former England head coach Mark Sampson on the basis of race.
Clarke’s statements were also criticized by former Premier League defender Anton Ferdinand, who wrote: “I appreciate that the FA is doing a good job with its diversity campaign, but it is important for President Greg Clarke to know that he uses the term. “Footballers of color” to refer to people of Ethnicity is unacceptable !!!! Clearly, education is necessary at all levels “.
Kick It Out: ‘colored’ comments should be sent to the dustbin of history
In a statement on social media, Sanjay Bhandari, president of the anti-discrimination organization Kick It Out, criticized Clarke’s comments.
He said: “I was very disappointed to see Greg Clarke’s comments today on the DCMS select committee.
“His use of outdated language to describe blacks and Asians as ‘colored’ is decades old and should remain in the dustbin of history.
“Being gay is not a ‘life choice’ as he also claimed. The casual sexism of saying that ‘girls’ don’t like balls that hit them hard is amazing to anyone, much less the leader of our national game.
“It is completely unacceptable. I was particularly concerned about the use of lazy racist stereotypes about South Asians and their supposed career preferences. It reflects similar lazy stereotypes that I have heard said in club academies.”
“That kind of attitude may well partially explain why South Asians are statistically the least represented ethnic minority in the field.”
“Soccer needs to step up and address this underrepresentation of South Asians on the field – there has been virtually no progress in 40 years.
“My experience as South Asia is that we don’t have different career aspirations, but we have different outcomes. Talent is distributed evenly, but opportunity is not. Soccer bodies need to focus on distributing that opportunity evenly and eliminating the kind of bias. that reflect these lazy stereotypes.
“I have seen the good work the FA has been doing to create a more inclusive game, especially on the Diversity in Soccer Leadership Code.
“The FA has rightly been applauded for leading that effort. But these comments indicate that much remains to be done to challenge attitudes. Despite all the steps that have been taken recently, the comments made today are a great step towards behind”.
Stonewall: Clarke needs to listen and learn – ‘language matters’
In a statement, Maria Munir, Associate Director of Community Engagement for the LGBT + equality charity Stonewall, said: “The language we use matters, so it’s a shame that Greg Clarke used such a harmful phrase as’ life choice ‘to describe being gay.
“It was also deeply disturbing to hear the archaic words and stereotypes she used to describe blacks and Asians, along with the sexist stereotypes about female soccer players.
“We hope that Greg Clarke and the FA will quickly apologize for his comments, as they did for the words he used to refer to black and Asian players today.
“This highlights how much more needs to be done before soccer is everyone’s game. Words have an impact, they influence the way people are treated on a personal level, as well as the institutional opportunities that are available to athletes.
“We encourage Greg Clarke to listen to and learn from all marginalized people, so that we can work for a world where everyone is accepted without exception.”
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