After hiring under-fire manager Malky Mackay on Wednesday, Wigan Athletic’s owner Dave Whelan now finds himself at the center of an anti-Semitic storm following his own comments to the British press.
[ RELATED: Mackay text scandal ]
Whelan, Wigan’s long-standing owner, was heavily criticized for hiring Mackay as the Latics’ new boss while the manager is still embroiled in an ongoing FA investigation into alleged racist, sexist and homophobic messages he is said to have sent during his time in charge of Cardiff City.
But Whelan, 77, has stood by Mackay following the damaging allegations and offered him a job just three months after the scandal broke.
[ RELATED: Mackay hired by Wigan ]
Following an interview with the Guardian newspaper of the UK on Thursday, Whelan will now have to answer plenty of questions about his own comments when asked about Mackay’s previous behavior.
Read the excerpt below from the Guardian, as Whelan’s comments are downright disgusting and have no place in the soccer world or anywhere else.Asked whether he did not think what Mackay said was offensive, because the claim that Jews “love money” has been used as a negative stereotype, Whelan said: “Do you think Jewish people chase money a little bit more than we do? I think they are very shrewd people.” Asked if he himself believed that, Whelan, the multimillionaire former owner of JJB Sports, said: “I think Jewish people do chase money more than everybody else. I don’t think that’s offensive at all.”
Whelan said he did not think there was “a lot wrong” with anything Mackay said, and there was no malice or disrespect… He added: “It’s telling the truth. Jewish people love money, English people love money; we all love money.”
Whelan was then asked if Mackay’s comments referring to Cardiff’s owner Vincent Tan as a “chink” were offensive. This was his reply.
What in the world is going on at Wigan?
That small family club from the north west of England, who captured the hearts of soccer fans around the world when they won the FA Cup against all the odds back in 2012, have gone down the pan. Whelan should have never hired Mackay as their new manager in the first place. At the very least he should have waited for the FA’s investigation to have finished. Even then, many believe that Mackay should have been forced to wait for quite some time for his next managerial position in soccer.
I am of that opinion too. Whelan has made some poor decisions over the past few days to first hire Mackay, then back him 100 percent and also incorrectly state that nothing will come of the investigation against his new manager. And finally, this entire sorry affair has culminated in Whelan throwing himself under the bus with anti-Semitic and racist remarks of his own.