Wigan, Mackay and the FA’s ostrich impression

You might think it’s bad enough that Wigan Athletic decided to appoint Malkay Mackay as their manager. Mackay remains under investigation by the FA for involvement in racist, homophobic and offensive text messages exchanged with his then Head of Recruitment at Cardiff, Iain Moody – using language that might make Alf Garnett blush.

But it hasn’t ended there. In defending his appointment, Wigan’s owner Dave Whelan poured paraffin on fire by first suggesting there was nothing wrong at all with describing Chinese people (or perhaps the Malaysian owner of Cardiff) as ‘chinks’ and then repeating that horrible old stereotype that ‘Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else. I don’t think that’s offensive at all.’

The real question, of course, is what is the FA doing about all of this? On the one hand the FA is committed to a zero tolerance policy towards racism, sexism and homophobia, and many at grass roots level are involved in important initiatives to rid football of prejudice. Yet on the other, there is a deathly silence when the FA is faced with the embarrassment of dealing with people in authority expressing unacceptable views. The FA is happy to censure football players for their remarks, but what about when club owners or chief executives engage in similar behaviour?

Wigan have briefed the press that FA sources comforted the Club saying there was nothing to worry about so far as the investigation into Mackay was concerned, because of an apparent unpublished FA policy of turning a blind eye to ‘private’ communications. Whatever the justification for such a policy, it’s hard to see how discriminatory exchanges between a football manager and his head of recruitment about who to employ or which agents to engage could possibly be immune from any scrutiny because they were hidden from others. Surely discriminatory views expressed by those with the authority to employ people and authorise payments in the course of their work is more serious than off the cuff remarks by players and fans?

And then there is Whelan. Only a few weeks ago Rio Ferdinand was fined £25,000 and banned from playing 3 Premier League games because of a remark he made on Twitter, unrelated to football, that was deemed to be offensive towards women. The FA acted swiftly and publicly. Now a Football Club owner, in the performance of his duties (unlike Ferdinand) and in defence of his appointment of Mackay, has said that it’s quite alright to tar a whole people with the old money-grabbing stereotype because it’s true. Surely the FA shall have to take action this time.