Damian Collins tells talkSPORT FA bosses must acknowledge mistakes over Mark Sampson affair or quit :-: talkSPORT
MP Damian Collins has called on Football Association bosses to accept responsibility for their failings over the Mark Sampson affair or 'make way for other people' if they are not willing to do so.
Collins chaired the parliamentary hearing into the Sampson scandal on Wednesday, with FA chairman Greg Clarke, chief executive Martin Glenn, technical director Dan Ashworth and HR director Rachel Brace all quizzed over the allegations of discriminatory behaviour by the former England women's manager towards players Eni Aluko and Drew Spence.
From what checks were made on Sampson before he became England manager, to why the FA was withholding half of an £80,000 settlement from whistle-blower Aluko, the 11 MPs on the panel pulled apart the governing body's handling of the bullying, racism and sex allegations.
Having started his evidence to the committee with an apology to Aluko and England team-mate Drew Spence for racist remarks Sampson has finally been found to have made to them, Glenn refused to accept the governing body's entire response was flawed, while Clarke would not apologise personally to Aluko, despite her sitting behind him.
Speaking exclusively to Jim White on talkSPORT on Wednesday, Collins expressed his disappointment that none of the FA hierarchy failed to acknowledge their mistakes over the sorry episode and called for 'massive change' within the organisation.
He said: "The fundamental thing which I take from yesterday's session was it was evidence of massive failures of process that meant serious allegations brought by Eni Aluko were not considered properly and this dragged on for months and left her in an exposed and difficult position. Thankfully, she is a determined lady who was determined to see this through and has been vindicated by this process.
"What was really frustrating yesterday was that people like Dan Ashworth and Rachel Brace, who were personally responsible for failing in that process, weren't prepared to apologise for it and nor was Martin Glenn, the chief executive. They were prepared to apologise, not anything they had done, but for what Mark Sampson had done and they weren't prepared to take responsibility fir the process failures.
"Now, the reason why that is important is these are the people whose responsibility it is that something like this doesn't happen again ad therefore it requires that they acknowledge where they went wrong themselves and they weren't prepared to do that.
Asked if FA bosses should resign, Collins continued: "We all recognise it needs massive change and want to see it happen.
"If not a change of people then a change of approach and a recognition of what's gone wrong. That's what I would like to see.
"It is either incumbent on the current leadership to demonstrate in a way they didn't do yesterday what they are going to do to respond to this or to make way for other people."
And Collins believes issues like the one raised by Aluko could be handled better if the FA brings former experienced former players into the organisation.
He added: "You look at the composition of the board and senior management and the sort of people involved in overseeing a complaint like this, there are not that many people who understand what it is like to be a senior professional and what the game is like. Maybe that would lead to better outcomes."
Listen to the full talkSPORT interview with Damian Collins above
