FA chairman blasts ‘distasteful’ Moyes over slap scandal

The David Moyes “slap” scandal intensified last night, when the chairman of the Football Association became the most senior figure yet to condemn the Sunderland manager.

Greg Clarke accused Moyes of showing a “complete lack of respect” to BBC reporter Vicki Sparks, and of undermining efforts to eradicate domestic abuse by threatening to hit her at the end of an interview.

Moyes is facing an FA charge over the matter after the governing body wrote to Sunderland on Monday asking for an explanation for his comments, which Clarke branded “distasteful”. The club finally broke their silence on the scandal yesterday, describing their manager’s conduct as “wholly unacceptable” before confirming they nevertheless had no plans to sack him. Moyes last night expressed his gratitude for the club’s backing.

“I think it was great that you get that support from the club, and I expected it,” he said after the 2-0 defeat at Leicester and added that it did not affect his focus on the job. “It was not difficult at all. I went about my job, prepared my players.”

As for the incident with Sparks, Moyes said: “I think the world of football is a great business now. I think it employs an incredible amount of people, whether it be through the media or in the training grounds. And for that reason, football’s a big talking point.”

He appears all but certain to be punished by the FA for using “threatening” words towards Sparks, and may also be sanctioned for breaching its rules on discrimination, with Clarke declaring that the Scot’s behaviour could be interpreted as sexist.

That was after watching footage of Moyes’s menacing reaction to being asked by Sparks if he felt under more pressure following Sunderland’s drab goalless draw with Burnley last month because the club’s owner was in attendance.

Confronting Sparks in the apparent belief the cameras had stopped rolling, Moyes accused her of being “a wee bit naughty”, adding: “You still might get a slap, even though you’re a woman. Careful the next time you come in.”

Those to condemn the incident included the shadow sports minister and a local domestic-abuse charity, who called for the FA to take action. Clarke, who stressed he had no input into the disciplinary process, said of the incident: “It was regrettable, it was distasteful, and I think it showed a complete lack of respect. And we in the game stand for respect. I think it’s doubly bad to use such a term to a woman because there is a lot of violence against women in society and terms like that aren’t just disrespectful, I think they are bad examples. I regret that it happened and I’m sure that David Moyes regrets that it happened.”

Clarke claimed the conduct of Moyes, who made a public apology on Monday, was not an isolated incident in the game.

“We’re getting into a trend of people badly treating journalists doing their jobs, and I would like to see that stop,” he said. “If a person wants to interview you, the least you could do is treat them with a bit of respect. There’s a professional woman trying to do a job – and not an easy job – and she’s asking appropriate questions in a respectful manner, and I think she deserves respectful responses – not responses like that.”