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KLOPP ESCAPES FA SANCTION DESPITE COMMENTS ON MANCHESTER UNITED PENALTIES.

Jurgen Klopp has escaped an FA fine despite criticising Andre Marriner and questioning Manchester United’s penalty record.

The German made the comments after his sides 1-0 defeat to Southampton on Monday evening. Klopp felt his side should have had a penalty in the first half when Sadio Mane went down after a collision with Kyle Walker-Peters.

Liverpool’s goalless performance led to only their second defeat of the season and United, who are level on points with a game in hand, now have a chance to go ahead.

Annoyed by the decision, Klopp claimed Marriner did not handle the Mane moment properly. Not stopping there, the Reds boss also questioned United’s large number of penalties. Across the 2018/19 and 19/20 seasons United were awarded 11 more penalties than any other team in the league.

But despite his comments, Klopp will face no action, according to reports.

“We had a really good view of it [the Mane incident], and it looked like a clear penalty,” said Klopp at full-time. “I turned around to the fourth official and asked if it was going to be checked, he said it already had been and was not a penalty. That’s 100 per cent true, and now someone wants to tell me how quick they had it in all these different angles.

Last year, there was a penalty against Leicester when people said Sadio Mane goes down too easily – if he goes down easily, we would have had a penalty in this game and the last game, a stonewall penalty, but what Andre Marriner did with Sadio Mane I’m not sure if that’s okay.

The boy tried everything, had a few great challenges with Walker-Peters. But there were a lot of situations which should have been free-kicks. The last one, when he goes down, you see that back and in the box he hits him in the end with his left foot, that’s a penalty.

“We cannot change. I hear now that Manchester United had more penalties in two years than I had in five-and-a-half years. I’ve no idea if that’s my fault, or how that can happen.”

Managers can be punished for their post-match comments, but the FA say “provided they are not personal in their nature, imply bias or attack the integrity of the officials in charge of the match, or in any other respect bring the game into disrepute.”

Despite Klopp questioning United’s number of penalties it seems his comments were not strong enough to warrant any action.

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ENGLISH FA OUTSOURCE HIRE OF GREG CLARKE’S SUCCESSOR.

The English Football Association are expected to outsource their recruitment of Greg Clarke’s successor as chairperson and will finalise their hiring process in the coming days with the aim of making a relatively quick appointment, sources have confirmed

Clarke’s sudden resignation on Tuesday evening following his use of a racist term when giving evidence to a Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee earlier in the day has left the English football’s governing body without a figurehead at a key time.

The 63-year-old referred to “coloured footballers,” stereotyped south Asians and Afro-Carribean people as possessing “different career interests” and described homosexuality as a “life choice” during a hearing designed to examine why the game had collectively failed to agree a financial rescue package for the lower leagues.

A statement from FA chief-executive Mark Bullingham released on Wednesday read: “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.”

Although Peter McCormick has been named as interim chairperson, the Harrogate lawyer is not considered a candidate for the role on a permanent basis and the FA are keen to make an appointment that will be able to robustly represent the organisation in key discussions around the restructuring of English football in the short and long term.

According to reports, the FA are in the midst of finalising the best process to identify the best candidates while following their own code of conduct recommendations. There is a sense of urgency around making an appointment, according to sources, but also a recognition the process must not be rushed.

The FA also outsourced the recruitment process for Martin Glenn’s replacement as chief executive, firstly using head-hunter agency Odgers before engaging Spencer Stuart — only to later decide to promote internal candidate Bullingham at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Bullingham was expected to make a statement on Clarke’s departure later on Wednesday afternoon and the FA are set to clarify their hiring procedures in another public statement once finalised.

No shortlist has yet been drawn up but several high-profile figures are believed to be interested in the position including Baroness Sue Campbell, the director of women’s football at the FA, and the organisation’s Inclusion Advisory Board chairman Paul Elliott.

Elliott is also thought to be a leading contender to replace Clarke as England’s vice-president representative at FIFA.

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ENGLISH FA BOSS APOLOGISES FOR RACIST REMARK.

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke apologised on Tuesday for using a racist phrase at a parliamentary committee hearing about the future of English football.

Asked why there isn’t an openly gay men’s footballer at the elite level in England, Clarke said, “The answer is I don’t know, right, because I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people from the LGBT community. I’ve talked to LGBT athletes from other sports who have come out.

“The views I’ve heard is if I look at what happens to high-profile female footballers, high-profile coloured footballers and the abuse they take on social media.”

Clarke was appearing at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee gathering to discuss the lack of progress in conversations between the Premier League, English Football League and the FA aimed at agreeing on a financial package to help all 92 clubs survive the ongoing revenue drop caused by COVID-19.

Members of Parliament also used the opportunity to tackle a series of wider issues including the lack of minority ethnic representation in boardrooms and insufficient funding for women’s and grassroots football.

Members of Parliament also used the opportunity to tackle a series of wider issues including the lack of minority ethnic representation in boardrooms and insufficient funding for women’s and grassroots football.

Clarke apologised and said that he sometimes trips over his words because he worked in the U.S. for many years, where he used the term “people of colour.”

Clarke had outlined at length how the FA were tackling issues of diversity and inclusion in English football and recognised the importance of the problems in lengthy, detailed answers.

But his evidence was littered with further clumsy language, stereotyping Asian people while also claiming a coach told him that young girls do not like the ball being kicked at them.

“If you go to the IT department at the FA, there’s a lot more South Asians than there are Afro Caribbeans,” he said during one answer. “They have different career interests.”

The FA released a statement shortly after the hearing concluded. “Greg Clarke is deeply apologetic for the language he used to reference members of the ethnic minority community during the select committee hearing today,” the statement read. “He acknowledged that using the term ‘coloured’ is not appropriate and wholeheartedly apologised during the hearing.”