Dave Whelan, chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club, has been given a six week ban from football-related activity after making comments about Jewish and Chinese people.
Whelan, who has also received a £50,000 fine and is to take a programme of education provided by the FA, accepted the charge but denied being racist. The FA Disciplinary Commission has stated that it is “satisfied that Mr Whelan is not a racist”. The chairman came under fire from many quarters after he chose to hire Malky Mackay as manager, a man who stepped down from his previous job at Crystal Palace following a race row stemming from a previous job at Cardiff. Mackay is still being investigated for “sexist, racist and homophobic” text messages during his time at the Bluebirds, owned by controversial businessman Vincent Tan.
Wigan also released a statement to confirm the findings and clarify the punishment handed out.
Whelan has apologised since the incidents where he made anti-semitic remarks and referred to Chinese people as “chingalings”, albeit in a nostalgic fashion when bringing up a story from the past. The FA deemed that his comments about Jewish people “chasing money more than anyone else” were not intended to offend but it “had a duty to view comments objectively and Mr Whelan’s subjective intentions were irrelevant as far the ruling was concerned”.
Wigan are currently in a state of emergency as they sit 23rd in the Championship, just 18 months after they were last in the Premier League and won the FA Cup. Having picked up just 5 points out of 30, upcoming games against Birmingham, Blackburn and Huddersfield are increasingly important to the club.
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