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.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
