‘Blackmail’ rap leaves FA in crisis
ENIOLA ALUKO last night accused FA chief executive Martin Glenn of behaviour “bordering on blackmail”.
The Chelsea striker, with 102 England caps, said Glenn insisted he would only release part of her £80,000 settlement if she made a statement saying the FA was “not institutionally racist”.
Aluko made her claim in a testimony in front of MPs in an explosive Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee hearing into the Mark Sampson scandal.
The settlement was made after she accused Sampson, who was sacked last month, of racially abusing her and team-mate Drew Spence.
Aluko (right) said: “I had one meeting with Martin Glenn and he said if I wrote a statement that the Football Association is not institutionally racist, they would release the payment.
“I believed that bordered on blackmail. I categorically refused to write any statement. It is not for me to say that the FA is not institutionally racist.
“For Martin Glenn to say I should say that in order to get a payment I was contractually agreed to is appalling.”
Glenn (right) later denied that in his own testimony, but only after the FA apologised to Aluko and Spence.
He was also forced to retract comments
suggesting the barrister who conducted the inquiry was chosen based on her ethnicity, because to have done so could be illegal.
The FA had initially cleared former England women’s manager Sampson of the race claims, only to sack him over separate allegations of misconduct.
But they were forced into a humiliating climbdown yesterday after a new report by independent QC Katharine Newton concluded Sampson did make racist remarks but was not himself racist and had made “ill-judged attempts at humour”.
FA chairman Greg Clarke was also forced to apologise in front of MPs after sparking outrage by referring to their claims of institutional racism and bullying at the organisation as “fluff”.
Clarke said: “I shouldn’t have said fluff. I could have come in and said there’s no evidence of systemic bullying, there’s no evidence of systemic racism.
Abuse
“I apologise for phrasing it badly. The material issue is twice an England player with 100 caps was exposed to a situation where racist abuse happened.
“That is a fundamental breach of our duty of care for that person and I feel very bad about that.”
In another extraordinary rant, Clarke also lashed out at the Professional Footballers’ Association, who represented Aluko.
He accused them of “walking away” from alcoholics, addicted gamblers and abuse victims, while paying “millions of pounds on salaries” in a clear dig at PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor.
Clarke also admitted that while sexism existed in football, the FA was unable to act on it because it didn’t have the legal powers, and that Sport England rules kept him from intervening earlier over Sampson.
Jo Stevens MP told Clarke: “I’ve never heard such shambolic evidence about the governance of an organisation”.
It also emerged that Sampson, 35 yesterday, is considering a case against the FA for wrongful dismissal, despite Aluko’s claim there was “an agenda to protect” him.