FA chief executive Martin Glenn has apologised after once again wedging his size 9 black patent leather brogue in his mouth once again.
Glenn kicked off his working week by unwittingly (you’d hope) lumping in the Jewish Star of David with the Nazi swastika in terms of overtly political symbols The FA won’t allow to be worn on football shirts.
Discussing the FA’s decision to fine Pep Guardiola for wearing his yellow pro-Catalan independence ribbon, Glenn made the fatal mistake of continuing to speak:
Guardiola’s yellow ribbon is a political symbol, it’s a symbol of Catalan independence and, I can tell, you there are many more Spaniards, non-Catalans, who are p****d off by it.
All we are doing is even-handedly applying the Laws of the Game. Poppies are not political symbols; that yellow ribbon is.
Where do you draw the line? Should we have someone with a UKIP badge, someone with an Isis badge?
We have re-written Law 4 of the game so that things like a poppy are okay, but things that are going to be highly divisive, and that could be strong religious symbols, it could be the Star of David, it could be the hammer and sickle, it could be a swastika, anything like Robert Mugabe on your shirt, these are the things we don’t want.
In short: Political symbols are a total no-no… unless they happen to be political symbols we wholeheartedly endorse.
For the record, the Star of David has featured prominently on the Israeli national team’s badge and kit for well over half a century. The swastika, to our knowledge, has never been sported on a football kit – unless you include the strip worn by the baddies in ‘Escape To Victory’.
Sure enough, it took roughly two hours for Glenn to apologise for his stupidity after attracting ire from pretty much everybody, everywhere.
I would like to apologise for any offence caused by the examples I gave when referring to political and religious symbols in football, specifically in reference to the Star of David, which is a hugely important symbol to Jewish people all over the world.
I will be speaking with the Jewish Leadership Council and to Kick It Out to personally apologise.
Wonder if Glenn will face any kind of internal censure from The FA for his crass remarks.
Frankly, we won’t be holding our breath.