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Football Association President Greg Clarke has resigned after using the term “colored” to describe footballers of different ethnic backgrounds.
Clarke previously apologized after her comments during a select committee hearing today.
In a statement, the FA said: “We can confirm that Greg
Clarke has stepped down as president.
“Peter McCormick will take over as Acting President of the FA with immediate effect and the FA Board of Directors will begin the process of identifying and appointing a new President in due course.”
Mr 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.”
A few minutes later, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee member Kevin Brennan MP asked Mr. Clarke if he would like to withdraw the use of the word “color”.
“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. “
He was also criticized for referencing “different professional interests” among people of South Asian and African-Caribbean origin after being asked what the FA was doing to improve diversity within the governing body.
“I was talking to the president of the Football Association of a county in the west of the country. Now he has tried to make sure he has representation in various communities,” he said.
“(He told me) ‘I am too committed to South Asians, I am not getting enough people of Afro-Caribbean origin.’
“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 of the FA, there are many more South Asians than Afro-Caribbeans. They have different professional interests.”
Later, Clarke discussed the possible backlash within soccer if a male professional player comes out publicly gay.
In doing so, he used the phrase “life choice”, although it was unclear whether he was referring to sexuality itself or the decision to come out itself.
“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 is 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 dressing room,” he 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.”
In an interview with Sky Sports News after the apology, DCMS Select Committee Chairman Julian Knight M, P 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.
“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.”
Clarke had also come under fire for comments from the anti-discrimination organization Kick It Out, the LGBT campaign group Stonewall, and footballers such as Anton Ferdinand.
