IT’S TIME TO TAKE A STAND
FA needs to make dinosaurs extinct
GREG CLARKE deserves to be vilified after managing to offend women, black, Asian and gay people in one fell swoop. It takes some doing, that.
But in the aftermath of his car-crash appearance before MPs, we were reminded of something e v e n more a l a r ming a nd depressing – that discrimination in football goes right to the top. According to Clarke, it took him more than 48 hours to convince UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin that stepping down from his UEFA and FIFA roles as well as the FA chairmanship was the only thing to do in light of what had happened. On Wednesday, Clarke told the BBC he would stay on in that role until March at the request of Ceferin, in order to protect UEFA voting rights at FIFA. Never mind the f act t hat Clarke had b r ought shame on the game he was supposed to protect and grow, all that mattered was not allowing the incident to weaken UEFA’S position in their on-going power struggle with FIFA.
Wha t a scandalous indictment of those who control the greatest est game on earth, not t least because as recently as August Ceferin himself insisted that seeing players start taking a knee in support of the Black Lives
Matter movement t had been a wake-up up call to his organisation. on.
Just over 12 months th ago Clarke (above) sat in front of the media in Sofia’s Vasil Levski Stadium to address the sickening racist abuse Bulgarian fans had inflicted on Gareth Southgate’s England stars.
Clarke said he wanted a review from UEFA and that he knew European football’s governing body “took the issue of discrimination seriously”.
I’m not joking, he was actually being serious.
Having confidence i n an organisation like UEFA, that in my view has not done enough to tackle racism, is the equivalent of believing Donald Trump will leave the White House with grace and dignity.
We keep kidding ourselves that the battle to beat discrimination is being won – but it isn’t.
And it never will be with archaic figures like Clarke in positions of power and those above even him talking a good game, without actually delivering one. The one good thing to come out of this unholy mess is that it gives the FA a wonderful chance to transport itself into the modern world, to embra embrace the diversity and cult culture it attempts to dr drive with genuine a actions instead of j just hollow words.
To make a break with depressing tradition and appoint a leader w who isn’t a middlecla class white man in a pins pinstriped suit with a backgr background in sales, marketing k ti and arrogance. Forget about the Bert Millichips and Keith Wisemans of this world and look to those with authority, presence and blue sky thinking. We need dynamism, not dinosaurs.
Chief executive Mark Bullingham needs to be brave, bold and seize the moment, otherwise those who govern the English game will find themselves on the same tragic roundabout it’s been on too long.
One current club chairman, who sat on the FA board for five years, told me: “The FA is like a machine t hat d o e s n ’ t w a nt to be modernised, like a person who doesn’t want rehabilitating. It needs new energy and a more modern way of thinking.”
So will the shortlist of candidates reflect the diversity we pine for? Who knows? We can live in hope. But Bullingham has to get it right because it won’t just define the future of the FA, it will come to define him too.