FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION chair Greg Clarke said yesterday he could not encourage gay players to come out until football became a “safe place” and homophobia was stamped out of the game.

Clarke and the FA’s director of strategy Robert Sullivan were appearing before the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee, with the MPs repeatedly challenging them on what due diligence was done before Sam Allardyce was hired in July.

However, it was his comments on gay footballers which raised eyebrows and highlighted the lack of action on kicking homophobia out of the game.

Clarke said he “would be amazed” if there were not a gay player in the Premier League and that he felt “ashamed” that no-one had ever felt the confidence to reveal the fact.

Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger came out in 2014 — making him the only gay Premier League player to have gone public about his sexuality.

When asked what he thought would happen if others followed Hitzlsperger’s lead, Clarke said: “I think there would be significant abuse because I don’t think we’ve cracked the problem yet.

“Before we encourage people to come out we must provide the safe space where they have the expectation to play or watch football and not get abused.

“The good news is we’re not in denial. We may not have figured out how to crack it yet but there’s a deep loathing of that sort of behaviour within football.”

Scottish National Party MP John Nicolson hit out at football for lagging “so far behing civil society,” using Luton Town fans hurling homophobic abuse at a group of Leyton Orient supporters “who they perceived to be gay” last Saturday.

Clarke responded by saying: “There are a very small minority of people who hurl vile abuse at people who they perceive are different.

“If I was a gay man, why would I expose myself to that?”

Clarke was also unable to confirm if anybody asked Allardyce about the four transfer deals he was involved in that were flagged up as suspicious by Lord Stevens’s 2007 report into overseas player deals.

Allardyce has always denied any wrongdoing.

“I wasn’t there because I have only been in this post for five weeks but I am assured by board members that they did do due diligence on Mr Allardyce,” said Clarke, who frequently reminded the MPs during the two-hour session that his time at the FA overlapped with Allardyce’s by just two weeks.

“Significant enquiries were made, we spoke to his former clubs and the League Managers Association — no issues were raised.”

But neither Clarke nor Sullivan, who was at the FA when Allardyce was appointed, were able to say if Allardyce was questioned about the corruption claims made about him and his son Craig, an agent, by the BBC’s Panorama in 2006.