FA’s lost trust says Clarke

GREG CLARKE admits that the Football Association has lost public trust in the wake of the Mark Sampson scandal.

And the FA chairman has pledged a full review to make it easier for whistleblowers to come forward.

The governing body made a public apology last week to England women’s internationals Eniola Aluko and Drew Spence over racist comments made by Sampson, who was sacked as team manager last month.

Clarke promised the FA would put in place by December rules to allow people with complaints to come forward more easily. Clarke (inset) was torn to shreds by MPs when he appeared before a parliamentary panel last week. Aluko said at the same hearing that the FA had an agenda to protect Sampson and its reputation. Clarke said: “We recognised the mistakes we had made, and hoped we could demonstrate our good intentions in how we had addressed an undeniably serious set of allegations. We failed.” He also accepted blame for dismissing as “fluff” claims of institutional racism during last week’s hearing.

He added: “It was a terrible word to use and I deeply regret it.”

Aluko has received the £40,000 the FA was withholding from her after a dispute over a tweet she sent in August about Sampson.

In a move she described as “bordering on blackmail”, Aluko claimed FA chief executive Martin Glenn told her she would get the second half of an £80,000 settlement if she wrote a statement which cleared the FA of institutional racism.