Greg Clarke stepped down from the role as FA Chairman yesterday afternoon, acknowledging that some of his words in the Select Committee hearing were unacceptable and offensive.
We respect his decision and are clear that his words simply do not reflect the views of the FA, our people and the organisation we are today.
We are committed to playing a lead role in actively enhancing equality and diversity across English football, whilst steadfastly challenging and tackling all forms of discrimination.
As with many organisations in this country, we are on a journey and have made substantial progress in these areas.
For example, our published In Pursuit of Progress plan has helped us to create a far more inclusive and diverse organisation. Our work on the Football Leadership Diversity Code has taken many elements of this plan, such as published targets for ethnic and gender diversity, to drive change throughout the game.
We have consistently reduced our gender pay gap to be far smaller than many organisations and have a very small ethnicity pay gap. We are investing record amounts in the women’s game, which remains one of our top priorities.
Whilst all of this is progress, we would be the first to accept that we have more to do. We are committed to further progress and will continue to transparently publish our plans and targets.
Peter McCormick will now step up as interim FA Chairman and he has the full backing of the FA Board. Peter has been on the FA Board and Council since August 2015 and has a wealth of experience across a number of roles within football and I would personally like to thank him for taking the role during this period.
With other Board directors, Peter and I are finalising the process for recruiting a new independent Chair of the FA. Our aim is to have one in place as soon as possible. Our process will be open and conform to the Diversity Code, ensuring that we are able to select the best candidate from a diverse talent pool.
We know that football has the power to unite and bring people together. We have a clear and focused vision on how we will do that, improving opportunities within football by breaking down barriers so that we have an inclusive game that we can all be proud of.
We absolutely recognise that there is more work to be done, but our commitment and passion to help improve lives, embrace diversity and create opportunities will remain fundamental to our organisation for years to come.
