By Ian Herbert For The Daily Mail
Published: 15:07 BST, 2 April 2019 | Updated: 21:32 BST, 2 April 2019
1
View
comments
FA chairman Greg Clarke has admitted that football is still failing to protect British players against racism by leaving them to report abuse and investigating too few incidents.
Eight days after Raheem Sterling, Danny Rose and Callum Hudson-Odoi were racially abused in Montenegro, Clarke also said that UEFA's threshold for referees taking players from the field — the racism must be of a 'strong magnitude and intensity' — was no longer good enough. Clarke suggested that abuse from one fan at a throw-in or corner should be enough.
With UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin also calling on Tuesday for 'brave' action from referees, the prospect of this course of action seems increasingly likely. Clarke admitted that his own organisation had 'learned the hard way' how to handle racism.
Greg Clarke wants players to be able to leave the pitch if one fan racially abuses them
He was severely censured by a House of Commons select committee in October 2017 over the treatment of Eniola Aluko, whose complaints of racism against then-England manager Mark Sampson were not dealt with properly. But he said that clubs and leagues must do more — using cameras and foreign-language lip-readers if necessary, to investigate every single complaint that is lodged — even if it is 'the