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FA investigating Wigan owner Whelan’s remarks

The English FA is looking into remarks made by Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan despite his apology for apparently insulting Jewish and Chinese people in a newspaper interview.
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November 21, 2014

The English FA is looking into remarks made by Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan despite his apology for apparently insulting Jewish and Chinese people in a newspaper interview.

The FA has also confirmed its inquiry into offensive remarks made by Malky Mackay, who Whelan has just appointed as Wigan manager, is ongoing.

The FA has not yet opened a file on Whelan and is looking to establish exactly what the 77-year-old millionaire boss of the Championship (second tier) club said.

“We are writing to Dave Whelan today and asking him for his observations and he has three days in which to reply before we decide, what action, if any, to take,” an FA spokesman said on Friday.

The FA also confirmed in a statement on its website that the case against former Cardiff City manager Mackay and Iain Moody, the Welsh club's former head of recruitment, was continuing.

Texts between Mackay and Moody, some of which were sexist, racist and homophobic in nature, were made public in August.

Whelan gave a newspaper interview after hiring Mackay and was accused of anti-Semitism and condoning racism for referring to Chinese people as “chinks” and saying Jewish people “chase money”.

Whelan later apologised during an interview with Sky Sports television but his comments have been widely condemned.

Chinese community leader Jenny Wong told the Guardian that the Wigan owner was condoning racism while Anti-discrimination group Kick It Out questioned whether he was “a fit and proper person who should be running a professional football club”.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the apology was not good enough.

“Whelan's bigoted and racist comments about Jews are outrageous and offensive, and bring the club and the game in to disrepute,” the Board's vice president Jonathan Arkush said on Friday.

“His half-hearted apology does not go far enough. You cannot insult a whole group of people, and then say, 'I would never insult them', and hope that's OK.”

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