Defiant FA face MPs over Aluko shambles

The FA will tell MPs tomorrow that they launched the eni Aluko inquiry of their own volition and then asked a barrister with a fearsome reputation to scrutinise it. The governing body will be grilled by MPs over the Chelsea striker’s claims that her accusations of bullying and racism in ex-manager Mark Sampson’s england squad were not heard. But the governing body is expected to remind MPs that it did not accept the conclusion of their own report into Aluko’s treatment and engaged barrister Katharine Newton to test the findings. It would have been a breach of Newton’s licence had she not subjected the FA’s report, and Aluko’s claims, to rigorous scrutiny — which the FA insist she did. Newton did find fault with FA technical director Dan Ashworth, whom she concluded had tried to influence the inquiry he co-led. But she did not uphold Aluko’s complaints.