Gregory Allison Clarke (born 27 October 1957) is an English businessman and football administrator, who was chairman of

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

from 4 September 2016. He resigned on 10 November 2020 after making offensive comments while talking to MPs. He was elected as the Vice President of FIFA on 7 February 2019 and resigned from this role on 12 November.

Business career

Clarke was born in Leicester, England. He was educated at Gateway Grammar School in Leicester. He is currently chairman of a number of private equity-owned businesses, including Eteach UK Ltd. From 1994 to 2000, Clarke worked in businesses in the

Cable & Wireless Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Ltd operating as C&W Communications is a telecommunications company which has operations in the Caribbean and Central America. It is owned by Liberty Latin America and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It ...

group, eventually serving as CEO up to 2000. From 2002 to 2009, he was CEO of

Lend Lease Corporation Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate company that creates and invests in communities, workplaces, retail, and infrastructure projects, headquartered in Barangaroo, New South Wales, Australia. History Founding The company was estab ...

, an ASX 50 company headquartered in Australia. After Lend Lease, he was briefly CEO of

O3b Networks O3b Networks Ltd. was a network communications service provider building and operating a medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellation primarily intended to provide voice and data communications to mobile operators and Internet service pr ...

, a Google-backed satellite broadband company. He has also served on the boards of BUPA in the UK and MTN in South Africa.

Football administration

Clarke was chairman and a director (1999–2002) of

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. He was chairman of

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

from March 2010 to June 2016. Nominated by the FA board in July 2016, Clarke assumed the role of chairman of the FA on 4 September 2016. On 7 February 2019, Clarke was elected as a FIFA Vice President for the UEFA region at the 43rd

UEFA Congress The UEFA Congress (french: Congrès de l'UEFA, german: UEFA-Kongress) is the supreme controlling organ of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). UEFA is the administrative body for association football and futsal in Europe, and is o ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. While FA chairman, Clarke had to lead the organisation's response to allegations of historical sexual abuse in football, and of racism and bullying in relation to the

Mark Sampson Mark Geraint Sampson (born 18 October 1982) is a Welsh football coach who was most recently a first team coach at Stevenage. He has also been a manager of the England women's team. Playing career Born and raised in Creigiau, a suburb of Car ...

and

Eniola Aluko Eniola Aluko (born 21 February 1987) is a football executive, commentator, and former professional player. She is the first Sporting Director for Angel City FC of the American National women's soccer league and formerly held the position of Spor ...

cases. In October 2017, Clarke announced a "fundamental" review of the FA after admitting it had "lost the trust of the public" following the Mark Sampson scandal.

Public comments

In the same month, Clarke was criticised by sexual abuse victim Andy Woodward for 'humiliating' remarks Clarke made to a

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, formerly the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is one of the select committees of the British House of Commons, established in 1997. It oversees the operations of the Department for ...

hearing, while the

Professional Footballers' Association The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members. The aims of ...

's chief executive Gordon Taylor said the PFA might sue Clarke over suggestions Taylor had not supported Woodward with further counselling. On 10 November 2020, Clarke resigned with immediate effect as the Football Association chairman following a meeting with the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

, in which he referred to

BAME A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship betwe ...

footballers as "coloured people", said a gay footballer’s decision on whether to come out was a "life choice", that "young female players did not like having the ball hit hard at them" and suggested that "different career interests" led

South Asian people South Asian ethnic groups are an ethnolinguistics, ethnolinguistic grouping of the diverse populations of South Asia, including the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. While Afghanistan is various ...

to choose careers in IT over sport. Clarke was talking about the racist abuse of players by trolls to the DCMS select committee via video link when making these comments. He resigned as FIFA Vice President on 12 November, again with immediate effect. Three years before, in front of the same parliamentary committee, Clarke said the issue of institutional racism in football was "fluff". He had to apologise after being chastised by MPs and reminded that language matters and led to the FA being described as "shambolic" by a previous parliamentary enquiry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Greg 1957 births Living people British chief executives Chairmen of the Football Association English football chairmen and investors People from Leicester