FA Chairman Resigns After Remarks About Black Players

Greg Clarke resigned as the Chairman of the English FA after he referred to black players as “coloured footballers”.

Mr Clarke has had prior moments of racial insensitivity, referring to institutional racism as “fluff” in 2017. He apologised after being warned by MPs that language matters.

Having seemingly learnt nothing, he again offered a lacklustre apology saying : “I am deeply saddened I have offended those diverse communities in football that I and others worked so hard to include.”

The comments came as he was talking about the racist abuse of players on social media with a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee.

He also referred to gay players as making a “life choice”, said that young female players did not like the ball hit hard at them, and that there were “a lot more South Asians than there are Afro-Caribbeans” in the FA’s IT department because “they have different career interests”.

Anton Ferdinand, former Sunderland, QPR and West Ham defender said “Clearly education is needed at all levels.”

He has been replaced effective immediately by Peter McCormick on an interim basis.