in front of her and 6000 or so fans. become a games or —— the commonwealth organising committee in birmingham has come under pressure because of lack of diversity among its leadership team, just one member the 20 individuals that make up the executive team and the board are not white. and at the weekend, dame louise martin, the president of the commonwealth games federation, actually steps down to make way for a new board member from barbados, to increase representation among that team. earlier on, i caught up with the chief executive of the common wealth games federation. this is what he had to say. i think we have an enormous opportunity as a movement to really reflect a nd opportunity as a movement to really reflect and respectfully protectively open up our duty of ca re protectively open up our duty of care for those that we represent and serve. the diversity, in terms of the commonwealth, 2.6 billion people across the world, diverse geography, island states, small states, some of the biggest states and smallest states of the world, and also this shared history. it's an opportunity for us to come together in a city like birmingham, which really represent all of that diversity, and bring forward many conversations that people have been probably uncomfortable to have but have been necessary and how do we takes steps together to get the road more free, more fair, more equitable and more just? the task of preparing for the games here in birmingham, which will be the biggest and most expensive sports event that britain has hosted since the london 2012 games, has been harder because of the covid—19 pandemic. an earlier on, i also had a chance to speak to the sports minister. and i asked him about the government's hopes when he came to the return of fans at sports events. i think it is a fair question. we will be limited in all of our day—to—day lives. sport will be one of them. i am confident we have a way to move forward. whether it is sports city or theatres, we have seenin sports city or theatres, we have seen in other countries, there is a way to get full audiences without a vaccine, so i am confident that there are measures that can be put in place that can give both those taking part in the sport and spectators confidence that they are going to somewhere safe. as it stands, with two years now to go in till birmingham 2022, local organisers, council leaders all today were singing from the same hymn sheet, that the plans were as indicated but no one was scaling back ambition —— ruling out scaling back ambition —— ruling out scaling back omission if the pandemic is not where we wanted to be. staying with the topic of diversity, the chairman of the football association, greg clarke, says he's "disappointed" after claiming the professional game representatives that are on the fa board blocked a move to try to improve the diversity of its members. 0ur sports news reporter laura scott joins me now to talk about this. what has greg clarke said? it has caused controversy. it has caused controversy. greg caused controversy. it has caused controversy. g reg clarke caused controversy. it has caused controversy. greg clarke has written to the fa council, updating on what was said last week ‘s meeting. he says a number of things are put to the board in terms of increase the diversity of the fa board, and among these one suggest had been to promote paul elliott, chair of the advisory board, to become a director. 0ther advisory board, to become a director. other suggestions were to give the premier league and the efl, on the professional side of things and the national game, and extra board member, but he said that professional game representatives had opposed such a review and that the national game presented tips, those pathetic, had been loathes to oppose the professional game, so he said he was impossible to examine the constitution of the board because it did not have the backing of the professional game —— those sympathetic. we waited on a response from the premier league and efl, but then came an update from greg clarke on the fa's website, saying that he had been updated on what had actually happened and that she did not intend for the letter to be divisive and that he had been told that, actually, the professional game representatives were in favour ofa game representatives were in favour of a review. and response, the premier league and efl have tonight welcomed that clarification and said that the initial statement did not reflect the discussions that have taken place at the port meeting last week and that they wholeheartedly support the objective of improving diversity, so a very controversial letter this morning but we have got some clarification this evening that seemingly everyone is in a sort of collaboration and consensus that they do want to improve the diversity of the fa, including its board. and i suspect more questions will still be asked but we'll leave it there. laura scott in west london, thank you. after a break last weekend, formula one returns to where it all began at the end of this week — silverstone. the first f1 race was held there — and this year, there will be back—to—back grand prix at the historic track. and it's not the only nostalgic return in the sport. mclaren, who are enjoying their best start to a season for six years, have reunited with gulf 0il, who have been iconic partners in the past. after the financial problems inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, mclaren chief executive zak brown has been telling jane dougall how he's optimistic for the future. fortu nately, fortunately, the sport embraced the need for change, to make the sport more sustainable for the racing teams. i think we have done that, i think we are now sitting on a formula 1 business plan that could produce more exciting racing for the fence and make it sustainable. 0f course, our partners, a critical pa rt course, our partners, a critical part of making sure we can hire the best people, given the best tools necessary to be competitive, and so gulf 0il necessary to be competitive, and so gulf oil and all of our partners are be contributors to setting this up for the future success. do you have concerns for formula 1 as a whole for the sport, because of the impact that covid has had? as long as things don't get worse, i think the sport has tackled the economic challenge and things should just get better from here moving challenge and things should just get betterfrom here moving forward, so iam quite betterfrom here moving forward, so i am quite bullish on the future for formerly one and mclaren within formula 1. lando had two good races in austria. it does show how much promise he has, and as a brick, that is exciting for the at silverstone. how are mclaren feeling? he should be pretty strong at silverstone. lando is really coming onto his own. an immense talent on the check. and he showed that last year but he has come on very strong he showed that last year but he has come on very strong and he is a great character, he is a fan favourite, the team enjoy working with him. he gets along with his team—mate, carlos as well. i think you will see him climbing the ladder of the podium to get to the top step, so i think he is great for the sport stop one of the features that have been so relevant to the serta firm and the one has been the black lives matter campaigns —— firm and the one has been the black lives matter campaigns -- start of