EPL Chair Dave Richards apologized for claiming that FIFA and UEFA had "stolen" soccer from England during remarks at a sports security conference in Qatar, according to Martyn Ziegler of the London INDEPENDENT. Richards said, “I would like to apologise for any offence caused. It is important to clarify that I was expressing my personal views and not those of any organisation I represent. My comments on the heritage of the game were intended to be light-hearted” (London INDEPENDENT, 3/15). The GUARDIAN’s Owen Gibson notes the EPL was “forced to distance itself” from Richards after the remarks. An EPL spokesperson said, "Dave is attending the conference in a private and personal capacity and his comments in no way reflect the views of the Premier League." Richards during his speech said, "For 50 years we owned the game. … We were the governance of the game. We wrote the rules, designed the pitches and everything else. Then, 50 years later, some guy came along and said: 'You're liars,' and they actually stole it. It was called FIFA. Fifty years later another gang came along called UEFA and stole a bit more." Richards said of Qatar considering banning alcohol for the ’22 World Cup, “In our country and in Germany we have a culture. We call it 'we would like to go for a pint and that pint is a pint of beer.' It is our culture as much as your culture is not drinking. There has to be a happy medium." He continued: "If you don't do something about it, you are starting to bury your head in the sand a little bit because it needs addressing. You might be better off saying 'don't come.' But a World Cup without England, Germany, the Dutch, Danes and Scandinavians -- it's unthinkable" (GUARDIAN, 3/15). In London, Glenn Moore writes Richards in the past has “brushed off one gaffe after another,” but this time “Teflon Dave may have run out of friends to protect him.” Richards' influence is “on the wane but remains significant.” Many within the game regarded him “as a joke even before the revelation that he followed his speech yesterday by walking into a water feature fully clothed” (London INDEPENDENT, 3/15).
