The 20 minute barrage of remarks which cost FA chief Greg Clarke his job
Words by ITV News Sports Producer Daniel Salisbury-Jones
Greg Clarke has stepped down from his role as FA chair following a string of controversial comments he made while answering questions from MPs at a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday.
After Mr Clarke spent almost an hour answering questions, ITV News has picked out some of the remarks he made which have ultimately cost him his job.
11.58am – “So we have to look because the BAME community aren’t an amorphous mass.
"You know, if you look at top level football, the Afro-Caribbean community is over-represented versus the South Asian community.
"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.”
This was probably the most worrying and damaging of Clarke’s statements.
Kick It Out’s chair Sanjay Bhandari said: “I was particularly concerned by the use of lazy racist stereotypes about South Asians and their supposed career preferences.
"It reflects similar lazy stereotypes I have heard spouted at club academy level.
"That kind of attitude may well partially explain why South Asians are statistically the most under-represented ethnic minority on the pitch.
"We will be talking about this more later this week when we discuss some research to be released on Thursday.
"Football needs to step up and address this lack of representation of South Asians on the pitch - there has been virtually no progress in 40 years.”
12.01pm – “If I look at what happens to high profile female footballers, high profile coloured footballers.”
This was the most shocking moment and even picked up on during the meeting by the MP Kevin Brennan who offered Clarke the chance to withdraw the remark.
Mr Clarke apologised and said sometimes he “trips over his words”.
Mr Bhandari said: “His use of outdated language to describe Black and Asian people as ‘coloured’ is from decades ago and should remain consigned to the dustbin of history.”
12.03pm - “A lot of the guys know who is gay and who isn’t and it’s not an issue, it’s their choice, not a big deal.”
The language used here is again important and has wider consequences.
The campaign group Football v Homophobia said: “There are some people who will use a statement like this from the FA Chairman as a way to prop up their homophobia.”
12.15pm – “I’m not asserting that this is true but I talked to a female coach and she said: 'What’s the issue with goalkeepers in the women’s game?'
"And she said, young girls when they take up the game at six, seven, eight just don’t like having the ball kicked at them hard.
"They prefer to kick it than have it kicked at them.
"So we have to understand that we have to look at different ways of bringing women into the goalkeeper’s position.”
After inappropriate language used for race and sexuality Clarke completed an unfortunate hat-trick with women.
The network Women in Football tweeted shortly after that: “The only balls you need to play football are these" and two football emojis.