FA board director steps down, as involvement in the failed Crystal Palace takeover is investigated

An FA board director who Mail Sport exposed as having worked for a company involved in the failed takeover of Crystal Palace without the governing body’s knowledge has stepped down from her role.

Last week, Mail Sport revealed that Rupinder Bains’ involvement with the company who failed in their £185million bid for the club from a Cayman Islands-based consortium was under investigation by the FA.

Leaked emails showed she worked as a private lawyer for crypto-currency businessman Benjamin Leigh Hunt and his associate Wasay Bhatti on the aborted 2020 takeover — but failed to tell the FA or the Premier League.

The FA said last week it was ‘deeply concerned’ and confirmed it was launching an investigation.

And the governing body announced on Monday that Ms Bains would be stepping down as part of a restructure that reduces the number of board members from 12 to 10.

Rupinder Bains has stepped down from her role at the FA after being exposed in the failed takeover of Crystal Palace

 The £185m bid for the club from a Cayman Islands-based consortium is under FA investigation

An FA source said the decision had been made in November last year and was unrelated to its ongoing investigation into Ms Bains’ failure to declare a possible conflict of interest.

In addition to Ms Bains, who became the only non-white member on the FA board in 2017, Peter McCormick will step down having served almost the maximum nine years and Jack Pearce will leave his role as national game director.

FA chair Debbie Hewitt said: ‘We would like to thank Peter, Rupinder and Jack for their significant contributions during their time on the FA board.’

Ms Bains said: ‘We all knew who was stepping down at the time this decision was made last year.’