Greg Clarke has resigned as chairman of the Football Association in the wake of a string of controversial remarks to MPs about black, gay and female footballers.
Clarke was earlier forced to apologise after he used the word “coloured” among other extraordinary comments before a Digital, Culture, Media, Sport committee.
The FA said: “We can confirm that Greg Clarke has stepped down from his role as our chairman.
“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.”
Clarke appeared to pander to a series of racist and sexist stereotypes and also insinuated that being gay was a “life choice” – although it is unclear whether he was referring to the decision to ‘come out’.
Here are some of the quotes which have caused a social media backlash, leading to his decision to quit.
CLARKE ON RACE
“If I look at what happens to high-profile female footballers, to high-profile coloured footballers, and the abuse they take on social media… social media is a free-for-all.”
CLARKE ON RACE II
Greg Clarke quit after string of comments
(PA Archive)
“If you go to the IT department at the FA there’s a lot more South Asians than there are Afro-Caribbeans. They have different career interests.”
CLARKE ON SEXUALITY
“The real issue is once you run out in front of 60,000 people and you decided on Monday that you wanted to disclose your sexuality – and I would never pressure anybody to disclose their sexuality – what I would want to do is to know that anybody who runs out onto the pitch and says, ‘I’m gay. I’m proud of it and I’m happy. It’s a life choice, and I’ve made it because my life is a better place’, I’d like to believe and I do believe they would have the support of their mates in the changing room.”
CLARKE ON WOMEN
“I talked to a coach – and I’m not certain this is true – and said, ‘what’s the issue with goalkeepers in the women’s game?’ She said, ‘young girls, when they take up the game (aged) six, seven, eight, just don’t like having the ball kicked at them hard’, right? They prefer to kick it than have it kicked at them. We have to understand we need to look at different ways to bring women into the goalkeeper’s position.”
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