Greg Clarke has stepped down as the vice-president of the world football governing body, FIFA. He has also stepped down as the representative of European football governing body UEFA, on FIFA’s council.
Clarke took all these actions less than three days after he described Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) footballers as “high-profile colored footballers” while in a meeting with Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
After the meeting, the football administrator tendered his apology for the comment. Minutes after that, the English Football Association announced that Greg Clarke has resigned as the chairman of the association due to his racially motivated comment.
Peter McCormick who used to be Greg Clarke’s FA vice-chairman, stepped in as the interim chairman of the football association. McCormick and the Chief Executive Officer of the FA, Mark Bullingham, will work together to elect a new chairman for the association before the end of March 2021.
Unfortunately for Greg Clarke who planned to remain as Uefa‘s representative on the Fifa Council earlier, had to leave the post after a telephone conversation involving him and UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, today, November 12.
During the conversation, Clark was able to make the UEFA president see why he should resign his position as UEFA’s representative. He did that a day after he told the press that he and the UEFA president had agreed that he would remain on the council until March 2021 to protect the vote of Europe on the council.
The former FA chairman who was elected vice president of FIFA in February 2019, had to automatically lose his seat as the world football governing body’s second in command since he does no longer represent any association in FIFA.
“I tried to resign on Tuesday but Aleksander Ceferin wanted me to wait until the March elections,” Clarke said after he stepped down from Fifa’s council. “We spoke again this morning and he accepted my desire to go now. It’s better for football.”
As at the time of publishing this report, the European football governing body was already working on getting an interim replacement for Clarke on the FIFA’s council. The temporary replacement will remain in the office until March 2021 when UEFA appoints a permanent replacement.
“Following a telephone call this morning between the UEFA President and Greg Clarke, they agreed with Greg Clarke’s proposal that he should step down with immediate effect from his position as a UEFA representative on the FIFA Council”, a UEFA statement announced on Thursday, November 12.
Today in @CommonsDCMS I asked the @FA Chairman, Greg Clarke, to apologise for his language when discussing diversity in football. https://t.co/on8UavBq6F pic.twitter.com/UkGXcCVOsT
— Kevin Brennan MP (@KevinBrennanMP) November 10, 2020
