By Andrew Warshaw
August 22- What started out as an English top-flight club unexpectedly losing the manager voted the best in Premier League last season has developed into a sordid saga that has made back-page headlines and tarnished the integrity of the game.
When Crystal Palace unexpectedly parted company with Tony Pulis, who miraculously save the club from relegation last season, just 48 hours before the start of the new campaign over an apparent disagreement concerning the budget for new players, it was anticipated that his replacement would be swift and problem-free.
Instead, seemingly on the verge of being appointed, the favourite for the job, former Cardiff manager Malky Mackay, was suddenly removed from the shortlist following claims about racist, sexist and homophobic texts shared with his former colleague Iain Moody.
In one of many twists to the tale, Moody, who has been working at Palace since November, resigned as soon as the texts were made public.
The background to the story is a dossier Cardiff sent to the Football Association alleging misconduct while the pair worked together at Cardiff. That prompted Palace to end their interest in Mackay replacing Pulis.
Lord Herman Ouseley, chair of the anti-discrmination pressure group Kick It Out, immediately condemned the alleged wrongdoing.
“Kick It Out is aware but not shocked to hear of reports revealing alleged racist, antisemitic, sexist and homophobic comments,” he said. “These revelations are further confirmation of how football is tainted with racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism, and the culture which continues to exist throughout the game and in wider society as a whole.
“The reality is that these views are most dangerously held by those people in positions of power, and the football establishment knows and condones it. What you see at face value is not always reflective of the attitudes which are actually held deep down. It’s easy to present yourself as being reasonable and fair, and to behave in ways that hide prejudice and bias.”
Mackay, meanwhile, was quick to defend himself. The League Managers’ Association put out a statement on behalf of the Scot saying that while the tenor of the texts was “regrettable”, they had been unfairly cherry-picked and implied that Cardiff had deliberately timed their move to prevent Mackay being re-employed elsewhere.
“In the course of a search by the Club in early 2014 of 10,000 private text messages sent to and from another member of staff during Mr Mackay’s employment at Cardiff, in relation to other matters, it emerged that Malky had, it seems, sent a couple of one line texts that were, with the benefit of hindsight, very regrettable and disrespectful of other cultures,” the LMA said..
“These were two text messages sent in private at a time Malky felt under great pressure and when he was letting off steam to a friend during some friendly text message banter.”
“That said, Malky believes he could and should have conducted himself better on these two isolated occasions. The LMA does not condone in any way any potential breach of equal opportunities laws but would also point out that out of over 10,000 text messages and 70,000 documents produced over a long period of time it may not be a complete surprise that some inappropriate comments can sometimes be made by employees, like Malky, working under great pressure in highly charged situations. If Malky has caused any offence by these two isolated matters he would, however, wish to sincerely apologise.
“Malky finds it strange that these matters were only raised with the FA and in the media now, eight months after his employment ended and the day before he was reported as being offered the opportunity to become manager of Crystal Palace FC. Malky is also very concerned about seriously inaccurate and misleading reports of his alleged involvement in these matters in the media. It has never been alleged that he wrote any homophobic or sexist messages and he has confirmed that he did not do so.
“Further, there are incorrect and damaging suggestions that he sent a whole host of offensive and unpleasant messages that are simply not true and which give a grossly distorted and unfair view of Malky’s involvement in this matter. Malky looks forward to matters being put straight in due course, following any investigation of this matter.
“Malky cannot of course comment on the nature of any conduct or communications alleged to have been made by others. Malky has said that he will be fully co-operating with any FA investigation and that he looks forward to putting the record straight thereafter.”
Yet in a further twist to an increasingly unsavoury saga, within 24 hours the LMA was forced to backtrack with a follow-up statement after anti-discrimination campaigners objected to the wording “friendly text message banter”.
“The LMA apologises for some of its wording which was inappropriate and has been perceived to trivialise matters of a racist, sexist or homophobic nature. That was certainly not our intention,” the LMA said. “It is beyond argument that any comments that are discriminatory, even used in private, are totally unacceptable.
“The LMA remains absolutely aware of our responsibility to the game and to promote and uphold the highest standards of behaviour.”
The latest allegations add further fuel to an already strained relationship between Palace and Cardiff, the latter relegated at the end of last season, over an incident dubbed “spygate”.
Palace somehow obtained leaked details of Cardiff’s starting line-up ahead of a league fixture last season that the London club won 3-0. Palace have been fined amid reports that Moody might have used his contacts at the Welsh club, or close to Cardiff, to find out which players would start against Palace. Moody rejected the allegations as “incredibly, extraordinarily untrue”.