Sport minister Tracey Crouch was fiercely critical of Football Association chairman Greg Clarke at the Departure of Culture, Media and Sport select committee yesterday. Discussing homophobia in football, Crouch condemned Clarke’s recent claim that a Premier League player would receive “significant abuse” if he came out as gay.

Crouch encouraged gay players to go public with their homosexuality, saying that he there had “never been a better time to come out” for those players, despite what Clarke had said two months ago. Clarke has since been invited back to the committee in the wake of comments.

“If you’ve got comments right at the top saying now is not the right time, no wonder, in many respects, that they remain scared,” Crouch said. “The legislation is in place. It’s there to help combat homophobia in the whole of society. It’s as applicable to football and to any other sport as it is to anybody else.”

“The idea that the time isn’t right now, they were strange comments. I thought they were disappointing comments under the circumstances. So, in terms of the environment of somebody coming out, actually, today, now, there has probably never been a better time to come out.”

John Nicholson MP had told the committee earlier in the day that he believed there to be three gay footballers speaking to the Football Association about coming out. The FA, though, denied those claims and Nicholson later said that he was not speaking from a position of knowledge.

“I understand three players are in talks with the FA about coming out and they haven't done so yet,” said Nicolson. “It's good to know that you [the government] are encouraging people to come out.”

The FA were surprised by Nicolson’s comments but said that they would support any player who came to them about coming out. “We have been and are working hard so that if a player felt they wanted to have the conversation about coming out, we would be there and offer any and all the support we could,” an FA spokesperson said. “Ultimately it has to be an individual’s personal choice.”

There are no openly gay footballers in the Premier League, although German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger did come out after his spell playing in England.