British Soccer Owner Fined $78K for ‘Jews Chase Money’ Jibe
Image by getty images
The English Football Association banned the owner of a British soccer club from all soccer-related activities for six weeks over anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
Dave Whelan, who owns the Wigan Athletic Football Club near Manchester, was also fined $78,000 and ordered to participate in an educational program run by the Football Association in the decision announced on Wednesday. He has seven days to appeal the penalty, though the Football Association said in a statement that Whelan accepted the punishment.
In November, Whelan, 78, told the British newspaper The Guardian that “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else.” He also used the term “Chink” to describe a foreign businessman.
He was defending his decision to name Malky Mackay as the club’s manager despite a British Football Association inquiry into Mackay for alleged racism and anti-Semitism in email and text exchanges.
Whelan apologized in an interview with the BBC a day after his remarks were published.
The Football Association’s Independent Regulatory Commission acknowledged that: “Mr. Whelan is not a racist as can be seen from his business life as well as his private life including his support of charities.”
He donated nearly $8,000 to the Brookvale organization for the Mentally Handicapped, a Jewish organization which helps with care for the mentally handicapped.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
