Greg Clarke, until this Tuesday president of the Football Federation of England (FA, for its acronym in English), resigned from his post after apologizing for a racist comment.
During a conference organized by the Ministry of Sports, Clarke was asked about the difficulty of homosexual footballers to publicly declare it seeing the harassment in social networks suffered by black players.
“If I see what happens to players and footballers of color and the insults they receive on social networks … it seems that there is a free pass on the networks,” said Clarke, who was quickly asked to apologize. The expression “colored” is considered racist in English.
“I feel deeply regretful. Sometimes I am wrong with my words,” said Clarke, who hours later resigned through a statement distributed by the FA.
“We can confirm that Greg Clarke has resigned from his position as president. Peter McCormick will assume the job of interim president with immediate effect and the FA board will begin to work on finding a replacement,” announced that body.
Clarke said his words were “unacceptable” and a “shame” for the sport and for all those who practice it.
“I am very sorry for having offended all those communities for which both I and others have worked so hard to integrate,” added the former president of the FA.